Gizmodo: ambulance

Jaambaaro Vehicle Puts the Rickshaw in Ambulance

Kit Eaton — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:15:00 EDT

All joking aside, there are plenty of places in the world where getting speedy medical attention is difficult. And that's where the Jaambaaro concept from designer Benoît Angibaud comes in. It's a two-person pedal-powered ambulance, designed to get the sick and wounded to hospital in areas where motor vehicles are rare. It would have solar panels to help generate some energy, and be made of locally-salvaged materials. Great idea, though I have to admit the first thing that came to mind when seeing the stretcher's blister canopy was a short dude in glasses, shouting "Choppers!"... [Yanko Design]

Israeli Institute Plans Battlefield Medevac UAVs

Kit Eaton — Tue, 20 May 2008 12:20:00 EDT

You may think someone over in Israel's Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies had been watching one too many episodes of The Jetsons, but no... this is a real project. It looks like an Israeli consortium, led by the Fisher Institute, is attempting to put together the world's first unpiloted battlefield resupply and evacuation aircraft, dubbed "MedUAV." And as the strangely 1960s sci-fi concept drawing shows, it could take the form of a ducted-fan VTOL air car.

The landing-to-evacuation time could be as short as 45 seconds, which would be good news for battlefield casualties needing attention, and for medics who'd otherwise risk coming under fire when attending the conventional way. The patient pod could even include sensors and a comms system so that doctors could interact with the patient mid-flight.

The Fisher institute is planning on achieving initial test-flights in just 24 months, which sounds like a pretty aggressive schedule, though the first model may start off as a fairly simple UAV. The vehicle would have a 4-person payload and fly up to 10,000 feet, managing speeds of 150 kts. Does that sound like a safe operational envelope given what we know can happen to UAVs? [Fisher Institute via Danger room]

WiFi Ambulance Just Ta' Connect Ya'

tgrumet — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 10:46:57 EST

If it's portable, why shouldn't it have WiFi? That's what ambulance service provider American Medical Response (AMS) believes. And to prove it, the company is showing off a vehicle that includes an InMotion cellular Internet backhaul connection with WiFi to let paramedics hook up laptops and PDAS to a home base, then use them to fill in care information for patients when they get to the scene. Paper records from ambulance calls can be messy and time-consuming, so getting everything digitally could be a huge improvement.

Unwiring the Ambulance [wi-fiplanet]