The Carescape VC150 patient monitor, developed in cooperation between Innokas Medical and GE Healthcare, has reached a significant milestone as the monitor has been released for sale. In addition to product development Innokas Medical is also manufacturing the device, and now after getting the approval, Innokas has begun to deliver the device to GE Healthcare.
The Carescape VC150, which Innokas has developed and GE Healthcare is distributing, is a wireless vital signs patient monitor. The monitor is developed for hospital use for spot check or continuous monitoring at the site of care or during intra-hospital transport. The monitor measures patients’ vital signs like blood pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate and body temperature. A new feature compared to earlier patient monitors is its wireless WiFi connectivity with hospital’s information system, which benefits the nurses’ daily care in hospitals. The WiFi connection enables nurses to focus on taking care of their patients while easily documenting all the vital sign information of the patient without any manual work.
Innokas Medical has offered its comprehensive services to GE Healthcare in the project. At the first stage of the project Innokas developed the device and its functionalities. The major part of the development work was developing the software of the device. As VC150 has a WiFi connectivity, it is classified as a radio device, too. To be able to sell the monitor to any country VC150 has to have both medical device approval and radio device approval. So in addition to product development, Innokas acquired the 510(k)-clearance for the device for the US markets as well as the required radio device approvals. In addition to US the monitor has an approval to be sold in major European countries as well as Middle East and Africa.
Today, manufacturing has started in Innokas’ Tallinn factory, and Innokas is also taking care of the maintenance and after sales support of the device, as well as spare part managing and service training. Innokas continues assigning engineering resources to the Carescape VC150 monitor project, too. Juha Rantala, Product Manager of the VC150 patient monitor at Innokas Medical, is very excited on finally finishing the product development phase of the device, and on starting the manufacturing and after-sales work.
“The product development phase of the device is finally completed and manufacturing has started. This has been a very comprehensive project which lasted several years, so I feel very satisfied now, of course. During this project we’ve been able to manage large and complex problems and I see that Innokas’ capabilities as well as knowledge has grown even further during the project. I feel we’ve gained a kind of knowledge in house that will surely benefit our other customers, too. The future of the monitor looks good, which we welcome at Innokas, especially from the perspective of Innokas growth”, Rantala says.