From the December 2014 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


GE Healthcare developed a new ventilator called CARESCAPE R860 to address this issue. It’s currently only available in Europe, but GE expects it to receive FDA approval early next year. It’s equipped with lung protection tools and it works by measuring lung volume, possible lung recruitability, the capability of the lung alveoli to open and titrating the right positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) —pressure that remains in the lungs after exhalation — to enable improved oxygenation.

“It’s really a way for physicians to better understand the cause and effect of not only the ventilator settings that they have, but the progress of ventilation that’s occurring,” said Paul Hunsicker, clinical manager of GE Healthcare Life Care Solutions. “Ultimately, we’re trying to find a way of providing additional information to the clinician to understand what might be the optimal settings for this patient.”


Prolonged mechanical ventilation, which CMS defines as more than 21 days of ventilation for at least six hours per day, can also lead to health complications for the patient. But GE’s ventilator has a spontaneous breathing trial mode that helps physicians determine when a patient is ready to come off the ventilation and breath on their own.

It allows them to administer trials in a consistent manner and provides continuous trending and documentation of results to assess progress during those trials. “We want to be able to ensure that patient is going to be able to breathe adequately on their own once we remove the support of the ventilator,” said Hunsicker. “To do that, often it is required that a patient be monitored with minimal support for a period of time.”

Another complication that 40 to 50 percent of patients suffer from is malnutrition. The majority of those patients are found in the ICU, with the problem ranging from moderate to severe malnutrition, according to a study conducted by the University of Sao Paulo. “Finding the right nutritional balance for each patient’s unique needs is critical in speeding up the healing process,” said Hunsicker. GE’s ventilator also has tools for indirect calorimetry measurements.

When that is integrated with the ventilator, it captures gas exchange and energy expenditure measurements and physicians can use that to customize nutritional support. Today, health care reform is holding physicians accountable for delivering the best care they possibly can. If they can catch a patient before they deteriorate, avoid transporting them down four floors to radiology and customize ventilation settings for each of them then they’re well on their way.

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