What inspired the EpiShuttle medical isolation pod?

In partnership with The European Commission
What inspired the EpiShuttle medical isolation pod?
Copyright euronews
By Claudio Rosmino
Share this article
Share this articleClose Button
Copy/paste the article video embed link below:Copy to clipboardCopied

Futuris finds out how a new medical isolation unit that protects healthcare workers against highly infectious patients came into being.

As part of an episode exploring a new medical isolation pod that enables healthcare professionals to transport and safely treat patients with infectious diseases - such as COVID-19 - Futuris spoke to Ellen Andersen, the CEO of the Norwegian firm which makes the innovative technology.

What inspired the development of this medical isolation unit?

"The projects come from a group of doctors that was responsible for taking home a doctor that had contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone in 2014. They were responsible for receiving her at the airport when she was coming back, and they reviewed all the current existing equipment to see how they can protect both the healthcare professionals and at the same time provide efficient medical treatment," says Andersen.

"it gets very warm, very exhausting, and it's easy to make simple mistakes."

"What they found was that it wasn't good enough - the current equipment. There was a need for both increasing the safety of health care professionals that were working with the patient and also the possibility to provide sufficient intensive care during transport. Normally, when you do transports of highly infectious patients, you need full personal protective equipment, and after a while, it gets very warm, very exhausting, and it's easy to make simple mistakes. So that's why they wanted to take forward a product that actually made it possible to work with these patients without wearing all this personal protective equipment,"added Andersen.

Share this article

You might also like