Jul-Aug 2005
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Going beyond safety and comfort, Supermax understands the importance of making your patient care as pleasant as possible. With our unique peppermint-fragrance, honey-comb textured design, customers are delighted to discover and use Supermax’s gloves.




The following are features from the unique green peppermint honey-comb textured examination gloves:

 Comfort fit
 Low protein content
 Excellent grip
 Peppermint fragrance
 Refreshing experience

For more on the disposable gloves product range from Supermax visit: www.supergloves.com

Tracoe medical, a German manufacturer of premium products for laryngectomised and tracheostomised patients, has introduced a new voice prosthesis, the Tracoe VoiceMaster.

This voice prosthesis features a unique ball valve system for ultra-low airflow resistance. Its titanium sleeve with Candida resistant characteristics ensures a prolonged lifetime of the device thus reducing the number of early replacements.

The Tracoe VoiceMaster is a front-loading voice prosthesis for anterograde insertion. By means of a special loading device with colour indicators insertion and removal can easily be done under local anaesthesia in an outpatient setting.

The Tracoe VoiceMaster is complemented by the Tracoe VoiceMaster Primo for primary and secondary retrograde insertion. The VoiceMaster Primo is a silicone prosthesis with a ball valve made of Candida resistant PTFE material.

For more information visit: www.tracoe.com

An up-to-date textbook on quality assurance and management has been introduced by Fluke Biomedical, Radiation Management Services.

The second edition of Quality Management in the Imaging Sciences by Jeffrey Papp, PhD includes revisions to the mammography chapter and an accompanying CD-ROM featuring two 140-question mock examinations as well as full-size sample documentation forms that can be used ‘as-is’ or modified.

“This new, up-to-date edition has all the tools, skills and practical knowledge needed for quality management,” said Gary Kaufman, diagnostic product line manager for the Radiation Management Services business of Fluke Biomedical.

“Whether you are a technologist studying for a quality management advanced-level exam or just need a day-to-day practical reference for implementing quality management programmes in diagnostic imaging departments, Quality Management in the Imaging Sciences is the only reference book you’ll ever need.”

For more information visit: www.flukebiomedical.com/rms

The Dental Head Phantom

The Dental Head Phantom from Fluke Biomedical is now available for dental x-ray, evaluation and other dosimetry applications. Offered by Fluke’s Radiation Management Services branch, the Dental Head Phantom includes larynx, trachea, sinus and nasal cavities.

An articulating lower jaw with removable tongue enables easy access to teeth and air cavities. The phantom is made from tissue analogs for brain, bone, spinal cord, vertebral disks, tooth enamel and soft tissues that mimic actual tissues within 1% for CT and therapy energy ranges.

“The Dental Head Phantom is the only phantom used for panoramic radiography, which is used in 50% of all dental practices, to accurately visualise the oral cavity,” said Gary Kaufman, diagnostic product line manager.

“The Dental Head Phantom also allows for access into the mouth cavity for x-ray dental film placement as well as dosimetry in different organs and tissues. It can even accommodate natural teeth inside the jaw.”



Identifying patients

Being able to correctly identify a patient is a critical step in patient care; you must be sure that you are working on the correct patient before you can give them any medication, take samples from them or perform any treatment.

Yet in hospitals the current system involves using handwritten wristbands which are prone to being either illegible or mis-read. Even asking the patient to confirm who they are can be an issue if they are unconscious or sleeping.

Printed wristbands, containing both bar-coded information and text, introduce an element of automation into the process of identifying a patient and can simply be scanned at every point of contact during their care. Z-Band Direct from Zebra is a direct thermal, self-adhesive (one-piece) wristband solution.

Nurses no longer have to load ribbons into printers as the direct thermal coating provides ribbon-less printing on desktop printers. The durable UV wristband can withstand most common solvents and cleaning fluids used in hospitals. Z-Band Direct is available in both adult and child sizes.

Pre-printed colours are also available to provide visual notice of allergies and a secure adhesive fastening ensures that the wristband cannot be removed.



ENT technology

Mobile, easy-to-handle, high quality ENT technology is the hallmark of ATMOS which produces the ATMOS Cam 21/31 ENT camera.

The camera is the central element of ATMOS’s visualisation system and features four different light sources that can be adapted by pressing a simple button. A mobile, cable-free headlight, ATMOS HL 21 LED, combines bright, focused light with perfect illumination.

The ATMOS LS 21 LED light source can be clicked on to available optics, used without expensive light guides and is operated with a miniature battery. This light source simplifies your work: just fix the battery on your clothes and visit your patients.

For more information visit www.atmosmed.de



Drug abuse test kit

Drug detection can be carried out in a simple, one-step procedure using the new and improved Oratect II, a patented test device for the detection of drugs of abuse in oral fluids.

Collection and testing are combined in a single step, producing results within eight minutes without the need for an administrator to handle bodily fluid. The amount of sample volume required is just 0.5 ml, making it easier to collect samples from donors with dry mouths.

Oratect II is designed to accurately detect six drugs including marijuana (THC), amphetamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, opiates, PCP or benzodiazepines and is more sensitive to all drugs than the original Oratect. In addition the device’s cut-off concentration for parent THC (which is present in the mouth cavity rather than its carboxylic acid metabolite (THCCOOH)) is reduced to 40ng/ml to provide a longer detection window.

Presumptive positive results are confirmed by sending the Oratect II collection pad in an included vial to a SAMHSA laboratory for GC/MS analysis.



Colours Wheelchairs to expand in the Middle East

Middle East distributors are being sought by one of the fastest growing manufacturers in the active wheelchair market.

US-based Colours Wheelchairs says its international sales are developing thanks to an attractive range of everyday, paediatric and sports wheelchairs and an aggressive international expansion strategy.

As an example the Spazz G is one of the lowest priced active wheelchairs on the market. Distributors of disability products from Europe to Asia are signing up to obtain exclusive rights and Colours is now turning its attention to new markets in the Middle East.

Colours’ rapid growth is receiving a great deal of attention in the business community. Colours’ president and disabled entrepreneur John Box is the cover story of Fortune Small Business magazine for May 2005:

For more information visit: www.colourswheelchair.com



Ergotron’s ‘breakthrough’ desk mount arm

The LX Desk Mount Arm is the first monitor arm to employ Ergotron’s patentpending Constant Force technology. Using pivot motion technology the arm provides superior viewing comfort and reduces eye, back and neck strain. Users can effortlessly and noiselessly adjust their flat panel monitor, plasma screen or other digital display, in a fluid motion.

The arm provides a full 33cm vertical adjustment range, 61cm depth adjustment range, 360° side-to-side range, 180° right/left swivel and portrait/landscape rotation. Using a smart, four-bar linkage feature, the monitor stays at the same angle throughout the full range of vertical motion. Because of CF-technology’s unique, weight adjustable feature, the LX arm is able to hold and adjust the height of monitors weighing from 2.3 kg up to 9.1 kg.

“The breakthrough design of CF leapfrogs over conventional gas spring technology commonly used today, at a fraction of the cost,” said Pete Segar, Ergotron’s CTO. “The height adjustment process is so easy, even young children can perform the task,” says Segar.

For more information visit: www.ergotron-europe.com



Taking a step in the right direction

Heelift and Heelift Smooth Suspension Boots are now available from McKesson’s acute care and Redline long-term care product lines.

The DM System’s products have proven effective in treating and preventing heel pressure ulcers. Heelift eliminates pressure by lifting the heel with an elevation pad and suspending it in protective space. Pressure is transferred from the heel to the lower leg.

Heelift can be used with patients who are immobile, post-operative or sufferers from diabetes, cardiovascular disease or dietary deficiencies. Heelift is also ideal in cases of foot drop, flaccid paralysis (non-spastic), pre- and post-operative hip fractures and skin grafts.

“We are extremely excited about this partnership,” said Dr Denis Drennan, president DM Systems. “As a leading healthcare services company with nationwide distribution, McKesson has the ability to make our proven wound care products available to even broader markets.”