Medical Equipments and Their Uses   by Sophie Thorton

in Technology / Biotechnology    (submitted 2010-12-16)

Medical equipment is used by medical practitioners to help them make the diagnosis, monitoring or treatment of the medical conditions of their patents. To ensure that they are completely accurate and helpful, medical equipment should be made with the most superior quality ingredients or components. All medical equipments should pass the most stringent and rigorous safety standards. Medical equipment is part of the medical technology as it is technology that improves and extends life. Incessant medical technology creates more medical equipment which enhances the quality and effectiveness of healthcare.

There are different kinds of medical equipment depending on their function or whether these are for diagnosis, monitoring or for treatment.

• Diagnostic medical equipments are those used to help in diagnosis such as medical imaging machines. Medical imaging is the method used to create images of the human body or parts of the human body in order that medical experts can diagnose the problem or identify the possible disease or disorder. Examples of diagnostic medical equipment are ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines, positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) scanners, and x-ray machines.

• Life-support medical equipments are used to maintain the bodily function of a patient such as medical ventilators, anaesthetic machines, heart-lung machines, ECMO, and dialysis machines. A medical ventilator is designed to move breathable air into and out of the lungs for those who are unable to breathe or breathing insufficiently. Medical ventilators are classed life-critical system as failure of this medical equipment can result to death. The anaesthetic machine is used to support the administration of anaesthesia. Heart-lung machine or the pump or cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) is used in heart surgery. During the operation, the CPB temporarily takes over the function of the heart and lung. The extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is a simplified form of the heart-lung machine but for newborns. Dialysis machine is used on patients with kidney problems to remove wastes and excess water from the blood which the kidney can no longer do.

• Therapeutic medical equipments such as infusion pumps, medical lasers and LASIK (laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis) surgical machines

• Medical equipments for the laboratory which helps analyze urine, blood and genes which can help in the diagnosis of the illness.

Medical equipments can also be categorized as hospital medical equipment which is primarily employed in the hospitals. A BMET or biomedical equipment technician is the person responsible for ensuring the hospital’s medical equipment is working at its best when needed. BMETs are highly skilled technicians who make sure that the medical equipment is safe, functional and properly configured. What people don’t normally know is that there are also medical equipments that are used at home in order that patients can manage their health situation. These are what we call Durable Medical Equipment (DME) or Home Medical Equipment (HME) and include, wheelchair, home nebulizers, oxygen concentrator, crutch, to name a few. In order to obtain home medical equipment, a patient must be able to present a physician’s prescription, especially for FDA regulated home medical equipments.

About the Author

Sophie has an interest in Shopping related topics. To access more information on medical equipment, please click on this link.