Portable ICU Fits in a Suitcase

A new portable system with the functionality of a mobile intensive care unit (ICU) helps hospitals, aircraft, ambulances, field hospitals, and extended care facilities support continuous patient care during transport.

The MedEx 1000 is a portable unit, weighing less than 15 kilograms, intended to supply ICU functionality for adult and pediatric patients during transport. The system combines the following medical device capabilities into a single platform: physiological monitoring (electrocardiogram, invasive pressure monitoring, non-invasive blood pressure monitoring, temperature, blood oxygen saturation, and heart rate), low rate and high rate infusion pumps, a fluid warmer, a ventilator with carbon dioxide (CO2) monitoring capabilities and the ability to deliver oxygen to a patient using an internal oxygen source or an external high pressure or low pressure sources of oxygen. The functions of the MedEx 1000 are controlled from a central user interface. The system may be operated using either hot-swappable battery power or an external source. A universal serial bus (USB) port provides connectivity to an external printer, and allows for a connection of a USB flash drive to offload logged data. An Ethernet port allows for Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity. A future upgrade will allow additional medical devices to be added using an auxiliary device port that can be controlled and displayed through the system's own control panel. The MedEx 1000 is a product of Integrated Medical Systems (IMS, Signal Hill, CA, USA), and has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"The company's new modular integrated architecture will serve as a basis for an entire product family of scalable, customizable integrated solutions, and includes the first centralized control - as well as the first remote control - of multiple medical, data, and utility capabilities,” said Todd Kneale, President and CEO of IMS. "Just like systems integration transformed the automotive, aerospace and computer industries, the company is at the forefront of transforming healthcare through systems integration.”

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Integrated Medical Systems