Gizmodo Australia » ambulances

Jaambaaro Vehicle Puts the Rickshaw in Ambulance

Kit Eaton — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:15:00 +0000

All joking aside, there are plenty of places in the world where getting speedy medical attention is difficult. And that’s where the Jaambaaro concept from designer Benoît Angibaud comes in. It’s a two-person pedal-powered ambulance, designed to get the sick and wounded to hospital in areas where motor vehicles are rare. It would have solar panels to help generate some energy, and be made of locally-salvaged materials. Great idea, though I have to admit the first thing that came to mind when seeing the stretcher’s blister canopy was a short dude in glasses, shouting “Choppers!”… [Yanko Design]

Israeli Institute Plans Battlefield Medevac UAVs

Gizmodo US Edition — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:20:00 +0000

You may think someone over in Israel’s Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies had been watching one too many episodes of The Jetsons, but no… this is a real project. It looks like an Israeli consortium, led by the Fisher Institute, is attempting to put together the world’s first unpiloted battlefield resupply and evacuation aircraft, dubbed “MedUAV.” And as the strangely 1960s sci-fi concept drawing shows, it could take the form of a ducted-fan VTOL air car.

The landing-to-evacuation time could be as short as 45 seconds, which would be good news for battlefield casualties needing attention, and for medics who’d otherwise risk coming under fire when attending the conventional way. The patient pod could even include sensors and a comms system so that doctors could interact with the patient mid-flight.

The Fisher institute is planning on achieving initial test-flights in just 24 months, which sounds like a pretty aggressive schedule, though the first model may start off as a fairly simple UAV. The vehicle would have a 4-person payload and fly up to 10,000 feet, managing speeds of 150 knots. Does that sound like a safe operational envelope given what we know can happen to UAVs? [Fisher Institute via Danger room]

Canadians Get Reinforced Ambulance for the Obese

Seamus Byrne — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:20:52 +0000

Canadian Paramedics can breathe a sigh of relief, unbuckle their corset belts and cancel their chiropractor’s appointments – if they work in Calgary, that is. The city has taken delivery of an ambulance designed to get its obese citizens to hospital with as little stress and strain as possible – provided they don’t tip the scales at more than 1000 lbs.

The refit, which costs more than $30,000 per vehicle, includes a specially designed air mattress that inflates beneath the patient to transfer him to the stretcher (reinforced and widened, natch) and a remote lift system that raises the stretcher into the ambulance.Someone who may be cheering the arrival of Canada’s ambulance for fatties is Calgary resident Chad Campbell. He described it as “a step in the right direction.” However, it was not known how the four firemen and two paramedics that were previously needed to transport the 560-lb Mr Campbell to his hospital appointments had celebrated the news.

The 1000 lb ambulance [Medgadget]