Medical Briefcase For In-Flight Patient Evaluation

Makarand writes "On average one plane a day makes an unscheduled landing somewhere around the world when a passenger unexpectedly falls ill and requires medical attention. Diversion costs for an airline, related to fuel expenses and cost of putting people in hotels, can be anywhere between $50,000- $100,000 for each diversion. Now Airbus, in collaboration with the French Space agency, has come up with a solution in the form of a satellite-connected medical briefcase to determine if the patient needs urgent medical attention on the ground before making a diversion according to this BBC News article. A crew member with proper training can use the device to complete a medical examination of the patient in 2 minutes and download the data using satellite in real time to a hospital. A diversion is made if the emergency physician feels that the patient needs medical attention on the ground. Airbus believes that as planes get bigger, fuel efficient and fly longer hours with more number of people the chances of someone needing medical attention will increase creating a market for this device."

Comments

Better than nothing, but...

[gammelby]

While not being a physician myself, I still think the usefulness sounds a bit exaggerated:

"In two minutes you have a complete examination of the patient, you send this via the computer to the doctor, who is now able to make a complete assessment of the patient's status."

Especially compared to the data the device actually collects:

A crew member with proper training can now take basic heart, blood, temperature and sugar level readings.

Not much info to provide a complete examination, isn't it?

Let's do the math..

[wackybrit]

One plane a day on average diverts? The average diversion costs $50k-$100k to orchestrate?

Let's assume $80k, and one plane a day. That totals $29,200,000. Is adding and maintaining this system to every major plane in the world going to cost more than $29 million a year? You bet!!

Either the BBC is spouting incorrect statistics here, or is this is another union/Mason orchestrated contract.

I don't know how many major airlines there are in the world, but even if it's just 20.. are you saying that each airline would spend $X gazillion on this super medical system, or just $1.46 million each on annoying diversions?

Something does not add up here.

Phone is enough if the infos are like that

[giaguara]

If the infos of that "complete" 2 minutes medical checkup consists only of that kind of info (basic heart, blood, temperature and sugar level readings etc) the crew should already know how to do that.

So all they need is a phone. So the equipment they need is already on board.

Aerospace trends...

[Turbyne]

Looks like the Aerospace is once again following the footsteps of Naval operations. If planes get [naval adjective eg big efficient etc] enough, I'm sure we'll see actual sick bays, full kitchens instead of those little galleys, and maybe even a ten-forward.