Parity Medical becomes REO Healthcare Solutions Provider

Parity Medical provides a range of equipment to the healthcare sector, including mobile carts, at a glance status screens, PACs and patient entertainment systems. REO's medical isolation transformers provide patients and medical staff with full electrical isolation and compliance with all relevant international standards. This protects both patients and equipment.

"In some applications such as invasive procedures, or treatment that involves penetrating the outer layer of epidermis that normally acts as insulation and provides an earth, the body's natural insulation can be reduced to as little as one percent of its normal level," explained Steve Hughes, Managing Director, REO. "In these situations, medical isolation transformers can really help to minimise current leakage to provide better protection during the procedure."

"There's not just a physical benefit either," continued Hughes. "Lack of isolation can lead to power surges, EMI, overload and core inefficiency, raising energy costs, reducing reliability and, in rare cases, resulting in system failure."

One of REO's core products used to solve the problem is the REOMED compact transformer for use in medical applications. Conforming to international standards DIN EN IEC 60601-1 3rd edition, the REOMED transformer can be configured to use a variety of input voltage combinations from 0-115 to 0-100-115V, providing an output voltage of 230V.

Rated from 100-2000VA, the unit offers high efficiency and high capacity with no hum and low power losses, as well as a reduced magnetic stray field.

"One of the key schedules that we work towards in the medical sector in the UK is the Department of Health's Digital Maturity Index," explained Steve Wood, Director of Parity Medical. "Part of this is that technology is often going into environments where it has never been used before."

"However, there is no one-size fits all answer - some healthcare environments are new builds and others are structures from the 1880s. As a result, the ergonomics change radically. The challenges presented by navigating a patient health cart, for instance an anaesthetic machine, through those two different kinds of buildings are varied."

"Thanks to our relationship with REO, we are now able to more efficiently and effectively ensure electrical isolation on a piece of equipment in those applications that require it, whether it's in a surgical, bedside or a remote environment," concluded Wood.