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GE Healthcare is donating S/5 Aespire anaesthesia workstations to Aalto University and Arcada University of Applied Sciences. The aim of the donation is to enable students to get acquainted with health technology devices used in hospitals as a part of their studies.

Health and wellbeing one of Aalto's focus areas

Professor Ari Koskelainen from Aalto University Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering emphasises the significance of the donation to Aalto University. ‘Health and wellbeing is one of the strategic focus areas of education and research at Aalto University. The patient monitors GE Healthcare donated to us earlier and this anaesthesia workstation have a great significance for providing education about the functionality of medical technology. They offer concrete experience of the design of safety critical products and the controlled implementation of product development projects.’

‘Arcada has extensive experience in the use of simulation training for health care personnel. The equipment donated by GE will be placed in our simulation facilities where they will be used for training paramedics, nurses, midwives and nursing students. Thanks to the donation, we can improve the education of anaesthesia nurses related to essential clinical skills’, says Lecturer Patrik Nyström from Arcada.

The donation also benefits GE Healthcare. ‘For our product development, we like to hire students who have an understanding of human physiology and clinical parameters and who can also use a patient monitor and anaesthesia machine as recent graduates. These kinds of employees can join productive work considerably faster than others’, says Engineering Manager Niko Nuotio from GE.

‘Health technology is Finland's largest high-tech export industry, and one that is growing rapidly. We want to support teaching in this field and ensure its future in Finland, and we want to provide students with the opportunity to get acquainted with modern surgical equipment and to get experience of using it. Patient monitors have come a long way over the last 20 years, so it is a good thing that the devices used in teaching are modern’, says Nuotio.

Anaesthesia workstation monitors the patient's wellbeing

An anaesthesia workstation consists of an anaesthesia machine, patient monitor and an information system that communicates with the monitor. When a patient is under anaesthesia, the anaesthesia machine monitors the patient's breathing and administers oxygen and anaesthetics. The patient monitor connected to the device measures the patient's blood pressure, pulse, state of anaesthesia and dozens of other clinical parameters. The monitor communicates with the information systems and transmits alarm data over the information network for the medical staff. Both the S/5 Aespire anaesthesia machine and the CARESCAPE B450 patient monitor being donated include Finnish engineering expertise.