The State of Medical Emergency and Critical Care in South Africa

Apr 18, 2016

The State of Medical Emergency and Critical Care in South Africa

The largest emergency medicine conference ever to be held on African soil is set to shine the spotlight on South African emergency and critical care.
Philips Africa will showcase a breadth of medical emergency and critical care solutions at the International Conference of Emergency Medicine.

Johannesburg, South Africa - With the 16th International Conference on Emergency Medicine (ICEM) taking place in Cape Town from 18 – 21 April 2016, the state of emergency and trauma care, the need for continued education, and understanding the latest medical equipment and care is coming under review.

According to The South Africa Heart and Stroke Foundation, 130 heart attacks, and 240 strokes occur daily in South Africa, while the latest Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) annual report shows that more than four thousand five hundred (4,500) people died on South African roads during the year 2014-15.

As stipulated in the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3, these figures emphasise the importance of proactively investing in one’s health while also relying on trusted healthcare partners by empowering emergency care teams to react quickly and effectively in hospital, on the roads or in the home environment.

Philips South Africa will use the conference to raise conversations around the importance, relevance and ongoing innovation required in emergency situations, ranging from trauma to sudden cardiac arrest through their commitment to the SDG 3 targets. Conversations will specifically focus on the SDG 3 goals to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020 and strengthening the capacity of developing countries in particular for early warning, risk reduction and management of health risks.

To demonstrate the importance of state-of-the-art emergency care technology, Philips will create an emergency simulation scenario focused on the important steps taken to protect patients’ lives through immediate vital sign monitoring and stabilisation; displaying current equipment capabilities.

"As a patient moves through the continuum of care from the ambulance, emergency department, diagnostic imaging centre, cath lab, operating room and, or critical care ward, Philips helps to manage the flow of patient information, making it available when and where it is needed to empower healthcare providers to offer better, faster care. Philips is uniquely positioned to empower healthcare professionals to attend to patients in each of these settings, as well as the home", says Helen Brown, Philips Africa Senior Director for Patient Care & Monitoring, Ultrasound and Value Imaging Solutions.

"By innovating some of the most trusted patient care solutions, Philips strives to make the world healthier and more sustainable. The Philips range of emergency medicine HeartStart MRx defibrillators, Philips Sparq emergency medicine ultrasound system, and IntelliVue bedside patient monitors, ensures that specialised predictive and preventative care can be a current reality, because every second counts in emergency situations," Brown concluded.

Philips Emergency Care and Resuscitation systems, clinical training, services, accessories and programs are designed to enable care providers to respond to emergencies quickly and effectively wherever they occur and give those being treated the best chance of returning to an active, normal life. Philips offers a wide range of innovative, evidence-based emergency care and resuscitation solutions. Key solutions and technologies being showcased at ICEM include:

Innovative ultra-mobile ultrasound

Philips developed its range of HeartStart Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to be so safe and easy to use that virtually anyone with minimal training can use them. Philips AED solutions with Life Guidance act as a personal coach to guide ordinary persons through a cardiac emergency with a simple, step-by-step process. Adaptive instructions and intelligent sensors keep track to automatically deliver the right therapy, helping the user get the confidence to lead the way to save a life.

The HeartStart MRx Monitor/Defibrillator for emergency care provides industry-leading patient monitoring capabilities, exceptional diagnostic measurements, proven resuscitation therapies, and CPR guidance in a lightweight and intuitive package designed to help caregivers save lives in emergency situations and communicate and collaborate with hospital care teams for a seamlessly hand-off from an ambulance to the emergency department.

Philips Sparq emergency medicine ultrasound system

In an emergency care situation, when every second counts, clear image quality means precious time saved.

The Philips Sparq ultrasound system is a revolutionary system designed to provide outstanding image quality. It is equipped with innovative features that increase confidence when performing ultrasound exams and ultrasound-guided procedures, making scanning and interpreting quality ultrasound images at the point of care as simple as possible, so that the emergency care workers can work quicker and with ease.

IntelliVue bedside patient monitors

Philips IntelliVue patient monitors are among the world’s best-selling patient monitors; providing accurate, real-time physiological information needed to determine a patient’s status. They feature a best-in class ECG algorithm to reduce the number of false alarms, and they expand a clinicians view by offering immediate, seamless access to a wealth of clinically relevant patient information at the place it matters most – the bedside.

The IntelliVue monitors use Advanced Event Surveillance to create event-trigger groups to help identify subtle changes in a patient’s condition, or use ProtocolWatch for sepsis screening.

Philips IntelliVue MX600, MX700, and MX800 patient monitors with iPC offer an expanded, real-time view of a patients’ vital signs and a wealth of clinically relevant information from the hospital’s intranet and applications, all on a single screen. Each of these monitors combines a highly configurable, widely scalable bedside patient monitor with an optional built-in PC. The monitor and PC operate concurrently and independently.

For more information on Philips’ presence at the ICEM, visit the Philips Booth at stand #28 & #29 and follow @PhilipsSAfrica for #ICEM2016 and #PhilipsEM updates throughout the event.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2016 sales of EUR 17.4 billion and employs approximately 70,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.