Doug Green

EMVision (ASX:EMV) has today shared that its First Responder Proof-of-Concept (PoC) device has taken to the skies in successful aeromedical environment testing.  A series of volunteer scans with EMVision’s First Responder PoC device have been carried out in remote settings in collaboration with the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and the Australian Stroke Alliance. RFDS staff received preliminary training in the operation of the device and the scans were successfully completed with the device demonstrating an ability to withstand the physical stress, environmental conditions and operational constraints unique to aeromedical retrieval. The First Responder device represents an opportunity to fundamentally transform stroke and traumatic brain injury (TBI) outcomes for all patients, regardless of their location, by delivering sophisticated neurodiagnostic technology directly to the point of care. “Time is brain” in both stroke and TBI care, meaning that the longer a stroke or bleeding goes untreated, the more brain cells die. Rapid triage, transfer and treatment decisions are critical to minimise brain damage, disability, and death. An ethics application has been submitted and is under review, under which RFDS staff will enrol and scan patients in a usability and workflow implementation study in the coming weeks. The study involves a collaboration of RFDS, South Australia Ambulance Service’s (SAAS) emergency retrieval service MedStar, South Australia Health’s Rural Support Services, the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the Australian Stroke Alliance. The study will evaluate the device’s usability, reliability, functionality, workflow metrics and other tests as necessary to meet user and international regulatory requirements. Zoe Schofield, National Stroke Project Manager for Aeromedical Retrieval, Royal Flying Doctor Service, commented “It’s incredibly exciting to see this project come to life with the first successful test of the scanner’s array in a remote setting, a major step toward bringing rapid stroke assessment to aeromedical retrieval and rural and remote […]

Someone call Doc Brown (or perhaps David Webb, pictured) because referencing IEC 439, a Standard that dates back to 1990, is trying to take us back to the future. By David Webb* The film Back to the Future showed how choices today (in 1985) can have a large and long-lasting impact tomorrow. The message of the film – featuring the shiny, superficially tempting, but commercially tragic DeLorean car – brought to my mind some of the claims by non-NESMA manufacturers throughout Australia who parade products built to outdated standards as if the time-warp standards had some value and offer safety and compliance protection for customers. The fact is modern manufacturing techniques have progressed to the point where reference to very old standards – literally last century stuff – is totally irrelevant. They do the opposite to measuring up to the protections offered by the Standard we are obliged by statute to follow, AS/NZS 61439 AS/NZS 3439 Rather than protections, they are a ticking time bomb liabilities that can come back to bite customers, when and if anything goes wrong – when their switchboards are inspected for safety and Standards compliance, for example, leading on to insurance and workplace responsibilities. It will happen. The message of Back to the Future, featuring the superficially tempting but commercially tragic DeLorean (pictured), reminded David Webb of some of the claims by non-NESMA manufacturers in Australia who parade products built to outdated Standards Let’s look hypothetically at the range of specifications that come across our desk that do not even reference our industry’s obligatory statutory Standard, AS/NZS 61439 or AS/NZS 3439 – and the compliance protections it offers. I say hypothetically, because we are not singling out just one consultant writing a specification here, but rather spanning the broader spectrum of specifications that leave compliant […]