Start-up firm shoots towards success
The road from a great idea to a marketable product is long, rocky and often too expensive. Thus innumerable ground breaking, even revolutionary ideas have never seen daylight and innumerable great inventions and inventors have remained hidden behind desks, in labs and garages. Start-up competitions such as Senkrechtstarter, in Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia, ensure that hidden innovative
potential is released.
The winners of Senkrechtstarter receive financial as well as organisational support from the project’s initiators in Bochum.
Senkrechtstarter is technically a VTOL aircraft; figuratively it is more of a rocket — it receives a high-powered boost
and it’s off, skyward. A bit like the Bochum-based start-up AirMed Plus GmbH that last year was among the ten
winning enterprises – a boost that shot the firm right into this year’s Medica. On board is Airmed Plus an innovative
decubitus solution. Another AirMed Plus product, the ThermOPlus operating theatre (OT) system, consists of an
extremely quiet, highperformance device with heater (equipped with an activated carbon filter) and a patient pad made of high-tech fibres. Three features make this product particularly suited for operating theatre use: First, a pressure ulcer prophylaxis is already utilised during surgery, important WOUND HEALING Sensors ‘know’ when
a hand approaches particularly in long interventions; the patient is also kept warm during surgery, which reduces postintervention ventilation and thus costs. Finally, the warmth contributes to the patient’s wellness. Additional features include weight adjustment, Xray permeability and a closed thermo cycle.
In addition, the AirMed Plus portfolio includes air flow systems, alternating pressure systems and soft pads. The
company, which focuses on the production and lease of these technologies, sees Medica as a unique opportunity to present these offerings to an international audience. ‘We hope to meet potential buyers from Germany and other
countries so that, in the future, patients from all over Europe may benefit from our products,’ explained Birger Nispel, engineer and managing director of AirMed Plus.
‘We are particularly pleased that last year a medical technology company was among the winners. By supporting this Medica presence we not only want to strengthen the company, but also want to demonstrate that Bochum and the Ruhr region are a healthcare innovation centre in Germany,’ added Jie-Hyun Lee, who is in charge of the healthcare industry at the Bochum economic development agency.
The winners of the current competition are to be announced in May 2010. Tinkers, boffins and eggheads with a terrific idea are invited to visit
www.senkrechtstarter.de
Meet Birger Nispel and see the AirMed Plus portfolio Hall 3, Stand C 90
21.11.2009
