AirMed is delighted to announce that its new purpose built and designed incubator system will be arriving in January 2012. This will be the only incubator of this design and capability available in the commercial air ambulance market today.

“We have given considerable thought to the re-design and upgrade of the aeromedical incubator system to allow us to transport the sickest of neonates” says Dr Charlotte Bennett, AirMed’s Neonatal Medical Director.  Modifications developed by ParAid and MAC Interiors mirror state-of-the-art developments in neonatal intensive care which have occurred over the last five years”

The diagram shows the set up of the integrated system, comprising of a Drager Incubator, 6 Braun infusion pumps, neonatal ventilator and monitor and integrated mobile nitric oxide system - visuals provided by MAC Interiors

The new system will be comprised of an intensive care Drager incubator which is heated and double-walled to allow care of the most premature infants in a thermo-regulated environment. The nitric oxide delivery system and provision of warmed and humidified ventilation gases are integral to the aeromedically certified incubator design. There will also be 6 Braun infusion syringe pumps, not the standard 4 pumps currently seen on aeromedical incubator systems, this will enable AirMed full control of the administration of the precise medication doses that a neonate may require.

The fully integrated unit has been designed, tested and certified on its sled by MAC Interiors. The trolley unit has been designed and supplied by ParAid. The sled is compatible with the LifePort system so is transferable between the Piper Cheyenne IIIAs and the Learjet 35As on AirMed’s fleet, plus road ambulances and the local Thames Valley HEMS EC135 helicopter. The compatibility across all platforms of transportation was an absolute requirement within the design.

Diagram showing detail of the air, oxygen and nitric oxide supply system. Visual supplied by MAC Interiors

“The introduction of this unit will be the final stage of the full launch of our perinatal service” concludes Jane Topliss, Director of Business Development. “This will enhance our already recognised service and will really allow us the flexibility to provide a world-class service for all neonates that need transporting, not just those above a certain weight.

To get this design to the exact specification that we wanted has certainly been challenging, but we are now extremely happy with the outcome and feel that it will provide us with the technology we need in order to deliver our clinically-led transfer service to the highest of standards.”

Clients can be assured that the AirMed medical teams are trained to the very highest standards.  The deployment of the perinatal service is family centred and entirely clinically-led with safety considered as paramount importance.  By having a fully integrated operation which includes on-site medical teams, engineers and operational staff as well as the flight crews, AirMed is in an excellent position to ensure the provision of a top quality service with seamless interactions between all those staff members required to make the missions a success.

Following the rapid growth of the neonatal service provided by AirMed, this week saw the successful completion of their first twin transfer. The twins were carried on board the Piper Cheyenne IIIA G-GZRP which was in double stretcher configuration with a BabyPod II on each stretcher and they were cared for by one of AirMed's specialist neonatal medical teams.

The twins were transferred from London to Liverpool so that they could be nearer to home whilst still being cared for in a specialist neonatal unit.  "Whilst this was a logistically complex transfer due to the requirement for considerable equipment and multiple ground ambulances, this was the best possible way to transfer the twins" said Dr Charlotte Bennett, AirMed's Neonatal Medical Director "when the babies need to be transferred longer distances it is deemed much better for the care of the child to move them by air and reduce their time in transfer. Had this been done by road then they would have been in transit for at least 4 hours and been at the mercy of traffic conditions, this time was halved even when taking into account the road transfer to and from the airport."

The transfer was carried out on behalf of the charity Lucy Air Ambulance for Children and with careful planning the teams were able to combine this trip with the repatriation of a third baby back from Liverpool into London. 

AirMed is delighted to announce the operational launch of their new Perinatal service and successful completion of their inaugural combined obstetric and neonatal transfer. This expansion in capabilities follows on from the extremely high interest in the neonatal service received following the launch in March this year.

The new Perinatal Service has been added following a long consultation period with clients regarding their requirements.   This service continues AirMed’s close collaboration with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital NHS Trust (ORHT), but more specifically this time with their world renowned Obstetric Department including the Fetal Medicine Unit.

Baby Max following a successful, if albeit a slightly earlier than planned delivery

The new service will continue under the direction of AirMed Neonatal Medical Director Dr Charlotte Bennett, but will have the full support of Mr Laurence Impey and Miss Rebecca Black who are the Consultant leads in the Fetal Medical Unit at the ORHT, alongside Miss Sally Collins who is a Research Fellow in the same unit.

The Perinatal Service comprises of specialties that will provide support not only for the newborn child (neonatal), but will also enable Clients to have access to highly specialised skills required for the aeromedical transfers of pregnant women (i.e. obstetrics and fetal medicine). This is something that has only been available to clients in a fairly limited capacity before and without the direct access to the consultant teams required for this type of complex transfer. Our service will change all that, enabling direct access to the appropriately qualified medical personnel for the movement of patients with complex needs.

Following on from this, the service will also provide a link not only with these experts, but also with other affiliated specialties like paediatric surgery, cardiology, respiratory medicine, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, interventional radiology, clinical genetics and anaesthesiology that are all available at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

This new service has already completed its first successful mission. This involved a woman who had gone into premature labour at 29 weeks whilst travelling abroad.  Following comprehensive planning both medically and operationally, and after close consultation with the treating physician, a combined neonatal and obstetric senior specialist-led team was dispatched on board one of AirMed’s Learjet35As.

All eventualities had been planned for, including the necessity to deliver the baby. The Learjet 35A was equipped with double stretchers, including BabyPod, which enabled carriage of both mother and baby post delivery if required.

As it turns out, this comprehensive planning and assessment of all potential outcomes was required as after the mother was assessed by AirMed’s team it was agreed that the best course of action was to deliver the baby on site prior to the air ambulance flight home due to the onset of acute sepsis.  With close co-operation from the treating facility, baby Max, all 3lbs of him, was delivered successfully by Miss Sally Collins and subsequently resuscitated and intubated by Dr Charlotte Bennett.

Mum and baby doing really well on the flight home

The appropriate travel documents were sourced as quickly as possible and mum and baby were repatriated back to the UK where Max is continuing his care in a specialist neonatal unit. There is no doubt at all that had there been no immediate response from the insurance and assistance company, Mapfre, and the subsequent provision of the expert medical team and aircraft by AirMed, the outcome for both mother and baby would have been very different.

“We are all extremely pleased with the successful outcome of this trip, however it highlighted more than ever that in this world of ever changing demographics and travel, there is an absolute requirement for the provision of the most appropriate and specialised medical expertise for all aspects of patient needs.” Says Dr Charlotte Bennett, AirMed’s Neonatal Medical Director. “In light of this we have moved forward with the introduction of this Perinatal transfer service and we look forward to helping our Clients deal with those complex cases requiring a combination of specialised care and specialised personnel.”

(LOCATION), U.K., July 01, 2011 – UK-based air ambulance operator AirMed now uses Jeppesen supplementary information booklets to increase operational efficiency and to integrate the most current paper-based flight information available in the business aviation marketplace.  AirMed recently received operational approval for Class 1 electronic flight bag (EFB) use in the cockpit for its Learjet 35A fleet and partnered with Jeppesen to receive paper-based supplementary information booklets as backup material for text-based flight information.

“We are extremely pleased to be able to work so closely with Jeppesen and come up with a solution that not only benefits ourselves, but will also benefit all of our colleagues within the industry,” said Jane Topliss, Business Development Manager, AirMed.  “The time that we will save by not having to file revisions and being able to throw away the out-of-date booklets and replace them with the new ones will be extremely valuable to small operators like us.  Due to the nature of our worldwide air ambulance business and with many of our flights being emergency launches, we need to ensure that we have the best information immediately at our fingertips.”

Currently, AirMed carries one EFB unit on board their aircraft and back-up supplementary information needs to be carried, per regulations.  The supplementary information booklet solution from Jeppesen eliminates the need for pilots to file paper-based revisions, saving time and operational cost for the operator.

Jeppesen provides supplementary information booklets for tailored digital charting service customers and partnered with AirMed to meet the needs of this critically important business aviation operator.  Jeppesen supplementary information booklets are available with worldwide coverage for business aviation operators.