Germany’s air ambulance operator FAI Aviation Group is a leading provider of safe and efficient air medical transport. In the past years FAI has been using EpiShuttle as its preferred patient isolation unit to transport highly infectious as well as vulnerable patients, successfully performing hundreds of transports.

The EpiShuttle’s versatility enables FAI to protect immunocompromised patients from acquiring infections from the surrounding environment. This is thanks to the EpiShuttle’s positive pressure mode which the air ventilation system generates a positive pressure inside the EpiShuttle, relative to the environment. The positive pressure and the inlet filters prevent non-filtered environmental air from entering the unit.

When FAI was tasked with transporting a patient between Djibouti to Paris who had severe leukopenia/agranulocytosis, the EpiShuttle was chosen to protect her from infection. Being certified for air travel, FAI could load the EpiShuttle in their Challenger 604 easily and safely. The protective barrier of the EpiShuttle removed the need for the medical staff to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) during transport and the need to disinfect the aircraft before use. Its design also enabled the patient to be comfortable and communicate easily with the medical staff. All of this while ensuring complete safety for the patient – the alternative would have been use of PPE and strict hygiene practices, a less practical and safe option to ensure isolation according to FAI.

FAI’s Medical Director, Dr. Sebastian Gautsch remarked,

“We will use the EpiShuttle much more regularly as the comfort and quality of protection during the positive pressure transport is much higher with the EpiShuttle than without it, especially for those suffering from oncological/hematological conditions.”