New isolation unit developed to transport contagious patients

A Norwegian start-up has developed a product aiming to transform how medical staff transport contagious patients without risk of spreading diseases. 

EpiShuttle, which is co-financed by, among others, the EU, is a single-patient isolation and transport unit. The unit isolates the patient and secure the health care professionals, but also serves as a highly cost and operational effective alternative to more traditional methods of transporting contagious patients.

Usually when transporting contagious patients, you must disinfect the vehicle after each transport, this can take several hours and will set the vehicle out of service during that time. However, this isolation unit can be safely disinfected and re-assembled in less than two hours.

The idea behind the product came after a group of Norwegian doctors brought home a fellow doctor that had contracted Ebola during the outbreak in 2014. Again, they were reminded that the equipment used for transporting contagious patients, was far from safe. It lacked protection for the healthcare professionals when providing medical treatment, as well as poor safety for the patient.

Ellen Anderson, CEO of EpiGuard, developers of EpiShuttle, said: “When transporting highly infectious patients, you normally wear full protective equipment. That gets very warm and exhausting for the healthcare professionals, making it easier to make simple and dangerous mistakes.”

A few years ago, the common way of transporting highly contagious patients, was to build a tent around the patients, where the cloth was held up by tent poles. 

When it comes to so-called single-patient isolation units, many are designed with soft-tops. The structure is flexible, and they are easy to manoeuvre in tight spaces and fit into different kinds of vehicles. But treatment options are limited. And they have some weaknesses when transporting patients by air, moving between airports and for longer distances.  

So, the group of Norwegian doctors turned their attention to the drawing board. Soon they linked up with industrial designers at Eker Design, winner of the Red Dot Award and the designers of, at that time, the fastest car in the world, Koenigsegg Agera.  

The collaboration resulted in this transport and isolation unit that has undergone testing to ensure compliance with CEN 1789. That makes it easy and safe to transport infectious patients in an ambulance, in air, in war zones, at hospitals and even offshore and from cruise ships. The product has also supported the transportation of COVID-19 patients in almost every continent on earth (besides Antarctica).