University to design ‘super ambulance’ to speed up cardiac arrest treatment

By EMS1 Staff

MINNEAPOLIS — The University of Minnesota is hoping to design an ambulance that can be equipped with the latest technology to speed up treatment of cardiac arrest.

Star Tribune reported that the university’s ‘super ambulances’ would be equipped with the latest imaging, such as CT scanning, and heart-lung bypass technology in order to shave minutes off the time it takes for a patient to be treated.

The university, along with Minnesota Resuscitation Consortium, a group of hospitals and EMS agencies they collaborate with on cardiac arrest care, received a grant of almost $900,000 from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program to design the ambulance.

“These super ambulances could be game-changing for people suffering from cardiac arrest,” Helmsley trustee Walter Panzirer said.

“I’m not sure I’m even going to call them ambulances,” Minnesota Resuscitation Consortium director Dr. Demetri Yannopoulos said. “They’re more like an emergency department substation that’s mobile.”

Researchers will be tasked with coming up with a staffing rotation for specialized doctors who would need to be on board, as well as figuring out where to deploy the ambulances.