Demand for EpiShuttle isolation pod increases 18-fold

Ellen Cathrine Andersen, CEO of EpiGuard, said: “Current demand witnesses a world in crisis. In this crisis, our mission is to save the patient while protecting everyone else. With the numbers of confirmed cases increasing, the need for safe and efficient transport of patients is rising.”

The pandemic puts healthcare systems all over the world under major pressure and without single patient isolation, healthcare workers are at an increased risk of catching the virus. The EpiShuttle was approved by the EU as one of the key technological advancements to improve patient safety during pandemics.

Experience from training shows that healthcare workers make more mistakes when working with full protective gear, whereas the EpiShuttle allows healthcare workers to perform treatment while wearing a minimum amount of protective gear.

“The public and healthcare professionals’ safety must be top priority at every stage of a transport. In a healthcare system strained beyond its capacity, the EpiShuttle keeps the patient absolutely isolated, providing safer transport for patients, medical professionals and the surroundings”, Andersen said. “Safe transport of infected patients is essential to maximize our healthcare systems’ capacity. The EpiShuttle opens up for patient transport by ambulance helicopter. Until now, this has been challenging given the risk of contamination to crews. Single-patient isolation pods also allow patients to receive necessary treatment during transport, while reducing the need for disinfection of ambulances, helicopters and planes between every patient. It takes two to four hours to disinfect an ambulance. During this time, the ambulance is not able to perform other critical duties.”