Medical students, current UCAT (UKCAT) courses students, doctors, nurses, healthcare workers and hospital personnel may find this article boring and redundant, but if you are not very familiar with medical supplies and equipment, this may be very helpful and interesting.
Hospitals, clinics and medical facilities are equipped with different types of equipment, machines, and supplies that many average people may find foreign and complicated to understand. This article’s goal is to explain these items’ applications in order for us to understand more about their benefits and uses.
UCAT (UKCAT) courses students must know that UK hospitals are equipped with the most advanced and high-tech medical supplies and devices. In order to understand their benefits and applications, it is important for us to know even the basics about them. You don’t have to be a medical practitioner to know what these machines, systems, and supplies do.
Electrocardiogram machines (ECG) are medical machines that record the electronic activity of a patient’s heart over a period of time. These machines aid medical professionals to monitor and supervise the overall rhythm of the patient’s heart in order to identify underlying problems and abnormalities before they cause serious health complications. ECG machines are a common sight in any UK hospital as they play an essential role in monitoring patients’ overall heart rhythm.
Diagnostic sonography system is another essential device used in larger medical facilities and clinics. The system utilizes painless method of examining a patient’s internal body without resorting to radiation. Diagnostic sonography or ultrasonography uses diagnostic imaging technique to examine internal body structures including tendons, muscles, joints, vessels, and other internal organs to identify possible lesions and/or pathology. Additionally, the system can measure a person’s internal masses’ size, density and structure. Another popular use of this system is for monitoring the growth of a fetus during pregnancy.
Defibrillators are definitely among the most essential medical equipment pieces in any hospital in the UK because of the important role they play in saving patients’ lives. With the use of a therapeutic dose of electric energy, these devices can revive patients from life-threatening conditions like cardiac arrhythmias, ventricular fibrillation, and tachycardia. There are different types of these devices that are used in the medical industry, which include manual external defibrillator, manual internal defibrillator, automated external defibrillator (AED), implantable cardio- defibrillator (ICD), and wearable cardiac defibrillator.
Medical freezers can be considered as underdogs in the world of medical equipment because they do not see much “action”. While they are not used for treating patients per se, their importance cannot be underestimated. These freezers serve as storage of essential medical supplies such as vaccines, samples, and even body organs. Medical freezers play a crucial role in medical researches and laboratory uses. These freezers are not only used in hospitals but also in larger pharmacies, laboratories, and medical schools.
Electrosurgical units play a vital role in surgeries of patients as they are used to cut, coagulate, and alter tissues in order to address blood flow to a particular are of the patient’s body and increase visibility during surgical operations. Basically, electrosurgical units are used to cauterize and minimize blood loss of patients during surgeries. The units operate by using electrical currents to heat and cauterize the tissues, which allow the surgeon to view the parts that need to be operated.
Medical sharps are very common even in simplest medical clinics anywhere in the world. Common types of sharps include needles, syringes, blades, and lancets. These sharps are used in variety of medical operations and applications, such as surgeries, pumping of blood and other bodily fluids, among other uses. These devices are so important that no medical facility could operate effectively without them.