At Medlatest we cover Medical Device News stories and often cross the line into healthcare in general. We do try to stick to devices though.
If a medical device can be defined as a piece of equipment or instrumentation which is used in the improvement of a patient’s condition, then ultimately we’re at liberty to cover the story, reported by Reuters, of a publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association, supporting the notion that trauma patients do better when picked up by helicopter than they do by ambulance.
The paper does not factor out the time taken to get to hospital, suggesting that this might just be the major contributor to improved outcomes, but nonetheless we’re not comparing outcome per mile, so that’s a moot point.
Still, it’s an interesting piece because it reawakens the debate about whether the huge cost of air ambulances is justified, so you can read it here. Also it allows us to claim that the helicopter is a medical device, which is cool.
Source: Reuters