With the advance in technology and modern innovations, the procedure of treatments of various diseases is done with the help of modern and more developed equipment. Some studies have revealed that there are more than 500,000 products and equipment that are available in the medical technology industry. So, with the introduction of all these gifts of technology, the world of medicine today, looks a lot different than ever before. But most of these products do not work in vacuum and require power to perform and so they are regarded as medical grade power supply tools and equipment.
The medical power supplies which are created specifically for medical applications might sometimes appear similar to their counterparts in commercial use, but governing standards of power supplies in the medical field are much more stringent.
Uses of medical power supplies
If you enter into any room or ward of a medical institution, you will be able to find very few equipment that does not require a power supply in order to function. There are some devices, which would not even come into the contact of the patients at all and some others require direct contact.
Some of the medical devices and equipment are X-ray, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Positron emission tomography (PET), Computed Tomography (CT), Electroencephalography (EEG), blood analyzers, DNA sequences, Patient monitors, Robotic surgical devices, Ultrasounds, Heart-lung machines, etc.
A patient will likely not come in contact with the machine that will analyze their blood samples. Whereas for a patient in need of EEG, they are directly connected to the device and can suffer extremely adverse effects if the power supply does not function properly.
Types of Medical power supplies
The medical power supplies are distinguished into three main categories based on the way they make contact with the patients in order to function properly. Each type of these three categories of equipment has their own specific standards for the power supply it requires. There is a special section known as “Applied part” that makes physical contact with the patient during an operation. The three classes that applied part can be divided are:
- Type B: Body devices like the hospital beds have the least stringent standards and are considered as type B.
- Type CF: CF stands for Cardiac Floating. The Cardiac Floating devices make direct contact with the heart of a patient. Dialysis machines are examples of CF devices and they have the most stringent standards.
- Type BF: The Body Floating devices like blood pressure monitors fall in between type B and type CF parts.
Qualities for which medical power supplies are needed
- Safety: With ever medical devices, the patients are of paramount concern. For a device to be medical grade as well as reliable it has to meet the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) standards. According to the requirements of IEC 60601 standards, the medical power supplies must meet rigorous safety standards in the designs of their devices to ensure optimal protection of the patients.
- Longer design Cycle: With the standards that medical equipment must meet, medical power supplies take longer to design and refine than the other commercial counterparts. This is advantageous and it makes the equipment even safer. Besides, with this feature, more potential issues are worked out during the design phase and a device can perform its job quite accurately on a patient.
- Reliability: In the medical grade equipment, the stakes are much higher. If power supply malfunctions during a robotically assisted surgery, life of the patient may be lost. But most of the high-grade medical power supply tools and equipment are designed in such a way that they can manage and do the needful in such situations.
- Means of Protection (MOP): Most of the high grade medical power supply contains one or more means of protection (MOP) to keep the risk of electric shock to the minimum. The electric safety of a medical device mainly depends on these MOPs. So the MOP standard is maintained best in the best medical power supplies.
Here are some of the benefits or uses provided by medical power supplies and for proper treatments of various patients, proper medical supplies are mandatory in a medical institution.
