The idea for Medical Coaches' business began in the Australian bush country in the 1930s where founder Ian Smith traveled with his dad, an itinerant minister. Smith saw the dire need for medical attention on the part of the indigenous people and dreamed of providing mobile medical services.

The Smith family emigrated to the U.S. in the 1940s and Ian was promptly drafted into the Army. After World War II, he teamed with an old Army buddy who had become a commercial attache to the Cuban government. Sure enough, Cuban president Carlos Pro Socarrs had promised to bring health care to the people and Ian was the man to do it. In 1949 he designed, manufactured and delivered 36 mobile units for his first contract of $600,000.

It was the beginning of a company that has found numerous applications for mobile medical equipment around the world. Medical Coaches has built units for CARE and ambulances for service the Middle East. They crafted mobile trailers for such diverse applications as drug-sniffing dogs and their trainers in Pakistan and mobile communications units for NASA. Working with a coach body manufacturer near its headquarters in Oneonta N.Y., Medical Coaches has built 10,000 units, including approximately 400 mobiles with medical imaging equipment.


A partnership with Siemens began in the 1980s when the OEM decided to take imaging equipment on the road. Most recently Medical Coaches delivered the first Siemens MAGNETOM Espree trailer to Metrolina Neurological Associates serving North and South Carolina. Its the first time this type of MRI has been put on a mobile unit, said Chad Smith, marketing director. (Chad is the grandson of Ian Smith and the son of company President Geoffrey Smith.) The new coach [with its large-bore MRI] requires a lot of special shielding and weight requirements and has special humidification systems on board. Theres a lot involved to make it certified to fixed-site standards.

In addition to delivering equipment to more than 110 countries, Medical Coaches has found the U.S. market growing. There are a lot of reasons people go mobile. First of all the rising healthcare costs. Its hard for one hospital to afford a brand new $3 million system. With a mobile unit, two or three hospitals can share, Smith said. The hospital may also have outlying sites they want to service which wont [otherwise] be able to see that type of technology or would require patients to drive hundreds of miles to access this type of equipment.

Another benefit is speed to market since it can take years to retrofit a hospital to accommodate a new MRI but the mobile can be delivered within months.

Visit their website at Medcoach.com

If you step on board one of these coaches, its nicer than a brand new hospital room. Smith added.

More Voices