Nihon Kohden Introduces a Ventilator Designed for Lung Protection

Nihon Kohden, a U.S. market leader in precision medical products and services, has launched its new NKV-550 Series Ventilator System that offers a full suite of applications necessary in a critical care setting for patients of all ages, from neonate through adult. The NKV-550 is a ventilator that features an integrated touchscreen, intuitive user interface, and onscreen help functions.
 
The NKV-550 was developed to seamlessly transition between invasive ventilation, noninvasive ventilation and high-flow oxygen therapy, allowing clinicians to respond to a patient’s respiratory support needs without having to change devices.
 
“Every product we bring to market is designed to simplify workflow for clinicians and benefit patients,” said Yasuhiro Yoshitake, president and CEO of Nihon Kohden America. “We saw a tremendous need in the respiratory market for a comprehensive ventilator that could respond to any patient situation while also providing excellent usability using modern technology.”
 
The NKV-550 is a unique ventilator to offer Protective Control, a feature that uses a second graphic user interface placed outside the isolation room of a contagious patient who is under mechanical ventilation. The respiratory therapists and clinicians can view the ventilator monitors and alarms, adjust ventilation settings and alarm settings, and audio pause the alarm sound, through the second graphic user interface outside the isolation room, as long as the patient is within the sight of the clinician through the room’s glass window. When managing a patient who has a communicable disease case and is in isolation, this feature protects both the clinician and the patient because respiratory therapists and clinicians will not lose valuable minutes donning protective gowns, gloves and masks before responding to the needs of an infectious patient. This minimizes a potential hazard many healthcare workers face. An estimated 42 healthcare workers per million employed die each year from infections acquired at work.¹
 
The NKV-550 was created based on the lung protective approach to ventilation and features the Gentle Lung suite of applications to provide clinically relevant, easy-to-use tools for the open-lung approach to ventilation. The ventilator offers highly customizable screen configurations enabling the ventilator to fit into your paradigm rather than require you adapting to it. The app-based design provides guided processes to help create a more streamlined, systematic way for clinicians to optimize care of their ventilated patients.
 
The NKV-550 also offers on-screen help tools to walk clinicians through critical ventilator troubleshooting.
 
Founded in Japan in 1951, Nihon Kohden is a manufacturer, developer, and distributor of medical electronic equipment, with subsidiaries in the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company’s products are now used in more than 120 countries, and it is the largest supplier of electroencephalography products worldwide. A pioneer in transformational healthcare technology, Nihon Kohden has envisioned, designed and produced revolutionary devices, such as pulse oximeters, arrhythmia analysis, low-invasive blood volume monitoring and wireless patient monitoring. In the United States, the company is a trusted source for patient monitoring, sleep assessment, neurology and cardiology instrumentation solutions, and has been rated first in patient monitoring or telemetry for more than 10 consecutive years (MD Buyline). 
 
MD Buyline is a registered service mark of MD Buyline Inc.

Reference 
¹ Sepkowitz KA and Eisenberg L: Emerging Infectious Diseases Vol. 11, No. 7, July 2005