GLOBAL: Developments in air ambulance services

Although some patients can be safely transported by normal air or private road ambulance services, some need special facilities. In the Ukraine, Kharkove hospital needed to transfer a patient to Germany’s Leipzig University Hospital. The 51- year old man had acute respiratory disease syndrome, and to survive he needed facilities not available at Kharkov.Normal transport methods could have killed him.

ADAC-AirAmbulance had a solution. Using a Dornier 328 jet, there was enough space for the Leipzig hospital team and their intensive care equipment. A mobile ECMO unit, being used for the first ever time by the company, allowed the patient to be successfully transferred with a three-hour flight. All the time, he was under permanent manned intensive care, a new level of care in air medical transport. Germany’s ADAC-AmbulanceService is a subsidiary of the German car club ADAC, and a market leader in European medical assistance. It transports 16,000 patients each year with its own fleet of air ambulance aircraft equipped with the most up-to-date equipment.

International Air Charter (IAC) is offering the services of dedicated medical evacuation (medevac) aircraft to meet the growing demand in the UAE and the Middle East region. The regional demand for medevac services is forecast to rise even as huge investments in healthcare infrastructure and services continue to be made across the Arab world. The medevac market there offers considerable potential as the service providers are currently responding to 30 to 40 requests a month. While international missions used to involve mostly transports to medical facilities in Europe and the USA, the rise in the number of available high standard medical facilities in the Middle East has increased patient options and the frequency of medevac enquiries in the region.

IAC has 24-hour access to a fleet of dedicated medevac aircraft around the world and can respond to medical emergencies in a matter of a few hours via its network, while always adhering to the highest international safety standards. Elie Abdo of IAC says, “Medevac has become a more viable option for the UAE thanks to the influx of modern medical facilities within the UAE and throughout the region.”

American air ambulance group Sky Doctors has launched a corporate website after a lengthy legal struggle to acquire the company domain Skydoctors.com.An established air ambulance company for over 17 years, the team has flown over 75,000 air ambulance transports. Sky Doctors offers ambulance services via medical jets that cover long distances quickly while keeping the patient under medical supervision.

Acquiring the domain Skydoctors.com took considerable effort, as its previous owner was unwilling to sell the rights to the trademarked name. Eventually, a legal suit was avoided, as the company was able to secure the domain after a lengthy negotiation that lasted several years. The company says that recent US internet regulations and prominent legal battles over domain rights have shifted towards protecting businesses and reducing the effectiveness of domain squatters. The growing list of recent legal victories protecting corporations was a major factor in Sky Doctors successful acquisition of the domain.

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