Member Article

Peterlee engineers put North East innovation on the map

A North East based manufacturer of innovative biomedical test equipment is taking on American giants with the launch of its latest product to a worldwide market.

Rigel Medical, which employs 170 people at its headquarters in Peterlee, aims to broaden its worldwide market share with its new patient simulator technology.

The PatSim 200 – developed by North East engineers – puts medical equipment through its paces by mimicking the most common vital signs of patients, such as body temperature, blood pressure, heart-rate and respiration.

These tests are vital for highlighting faults with medical equipment in hospitals and healthcare facilities, ensuring that the monitors are accurate in real patient situations.

The biomedical industry has traditionally been dominated by large American companies, but the Rigel Medical team hopes its new easy-to-use device will beat the competition, especially in USA, Europe and BRIC countries.

Rigel Medical launched the product at MEDICA, the world’s largest medical trade fair in Dusseldorf, Germany, this month.

Andrew Upton, managing director at Seaward Group, Rigel Medical’s parent company, said: “Taking North East-developed technology to the world stage is a great source of pride for our company.

“We’re excited to be at another MEDICA trade fair and launching a fantastic new patient simulator.

“This really was a North East effort, all the way from design and manufacturing in Peterlee through to field trials at hospitals across the region.”

The company won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2012 for product innovation.

The new device, which is also manufactured at Rigel’s Peterlee base, includes intuitive features such as a large colour display and a memory function for users’ five most used sequences.

Andrew Teasdale, principal systems engineer, said: “Biomedical engineers perform a lot of tasks over the course of the day – our job is to streamline that process for them and save them time.

“We’ve listened to the feedback of our customers and built features that address their needs.”

Rigel Medical engineers also took note of compatibility needs for users.

The result is that PatSim 200’s cable ports are compatible with most hospital legacy IBP and temperature cables, making it Rigel’s most versatile simulator yet.

For more information, visit www.rigelmedical.com/medica.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Seaward Group .