World picks up on Neocot
A Queensland-designed lightweight portable humidicrib used to transport premature and critically-ill babies to and from hospital is attracting worldwide attention.
The device is the brainchild of John Grant-Thomson, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern Queensland and General Manager of Mansell Neonatal Transport Equipment, the Toowoomba company which manufactures the humidicrib.
It is now in use in hospitals in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT. And if feedback from international specialists is anything to go by, it soon could replace the heavy, cumbersome models used in overseas hospitals and emergency transportation units.
The Mansell Neonatal Retrieval System, known as the Neocot, was designed for use in road ambulances, fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
“An integral component of the design is an electronically controlled lifter,” says Professor Grant-Thomson.
“This allows for simple loading and unloading into aircraft or vehicles
and minimises the number of back injuries sustained by medical personnel during
transportation.”
The Neocot weighs 90 kilograms, 50 kilograms lighter than older models.
“The reduction in weight means mothers of sick babies can now accompany their children on aircraft, particularly helicopters.” The system also features a unique electric folding action which lifts from 270mm collapsed height to approximately one metre above the ground. The apparatus is fully manoeuvrable at any height within its lifting range and over rough terrain due to large solid rubber castor wheels.
The Neocot was one of 20 Australian products shown in an Austrade exhibition at Medica 2004, a medical equipment exhibition in Dusseldorf in November which attracted 6000 international exhibitors and more than 200 000 visitors.
On his way to Dusseldorf, Professor Grant-Thomson gave a presentation at Singapore’s largest maternity hospital and afterwards travelled to Norway to supervise the Neocot being trialled in aircraft used by the Norwegian Air Ambulance. Medical and engineering personnel from Sweden, Norway and the United States have also visited Toowoomba to inspect the system.
The project was born five years ago when Professor Grant-Thomson was approached by two of Queensland’s leading neonatal specialists who were aware of an adult retrieval system he had designed for the Australian Army during the Rwandan crisis in the 1990s.
Dr David Tudehope, Director of the Mater Mothers Hospital’s Department of Neonatology and Dr David Cartwright, Director of Neonatology at the Royal Women’s Hospital, asked him to adapt that system to suit the transportation of babies.
Professor Grant-Thomson received a number of grants to develop the project, including $28 000 from the Department of State Development and Innovation.
The device now is used to transport an average of 120 babies each month all over Australia. In Queensland it is in use at Brisbane’s Mater Mothers and Royal Women’s hospitals, Toowoomba General Hospital, Townsville General Hospital and Cairns Base Hospital.
Last year Professor Grant-Thomson retired after a 35-year university teaching career and now works part-time at the university supervising post graduate students.
Last reviewed 19 January 2006