Medical technology solutions provider Arjo has unveiled the IndiGo intuitive drive assist, designed to reduce ergonomic risk and enhance the ease and efficiency of transporting patients on medical beds.
Image: Arjo's IndiGo is the new lighter transport available for caregivers. Photo: Courtesy of PR Newswire.
Comprised of a powered fifth wheel installed beneath the bed, IndiGo is unlike other power drive systems, which are typically separate, bulky pieces of equipment. Once installed, IndiGo is always ready for use, saving time and effort to store or transfer external equipment.
Arjo Medical Beds senior product specialist Peter Lambord said: “We put ourselves in the customers’ shoes and tried to imagine what their dream product would be like. We realized that to truly make a difference in terms of convenience, efficiency, safety and ease of use, we would have to come up with a completely new product concept. This led us to the idea of an integrated power assist that responds directly to user input, which became the basis for the IndiGo concept.”
Arjo CEO Joacim Lindoff said: “Our understanding of the challenges our customers face drives our mission to always create products with people in mind.”
Pushing a modern hospital bed with a patient in it can be strenuous. Additional challenges may include narrow corridors, inclines, soft floorings, elevators and long distances between departments. Current assistive devices, including separate bed movers, can be impractical and difficult to operate.
IndiGo eliminates the complexity of additional equipment or controls. Users activate IndiGo by lifting the brake pedal with their foot. Then as they push the bed, IndiGo assists with automatic slope detection, providing additional power when moving up slopes and braking assistance when moving down slopes. The user interface is intuitive enough to enable small positioning adjustments and sideways movements, and it requires minimal training to operate.
IndiGo is available for Arjo’s Enterprise medical beds and Citadel patient care system and can be retrofitted to select Citadel and Enterprise beds.
Source: Company Press Release.