Product Premiere
Improving on Success
SeQual enhances its Eclipse POC with features to help patients stay active.
SeQual’s Eclipse 3 combines battery and cart enhancements, along with its autoSAT technology to ensure patients can stay active throughout the day.
The marvelous thing about innovation is that it is a perpetual process. Something can always be improved. The HME industry is a case in point. Manufacturers and providers are continually working together with other healthcare providers to determine ways in which they can improve patient outcomes and help them live their lives to their fullest. No sooner has a new DME offering been unveiled when someone starts working on ways to make it better.
Keeping Patients On the Go
One product clearly on that track of improvement is SeQual’s Eclipse 3 portable oxygen concentrator, the latest offering in the Eclipse line, which has been on the market for roughly four years. Unveiled at Medtrade Fall 2009, the Eclipse 3 brings refinements that enhance the ease of use for the patient.
That’s important, given that portable oxygen concentrators are designed to ensure an ambulatory patient can maintain his or her active lifestyle. While POCs definitely do that, they aren’t entirely worry free. Patients must still change batteries, bring power adapters, etc., to ensure their units can keep working for them. One of the key enhancements to the Eclipse 3 (or E3) is a new cart design that lets users easily remove a battery and swap it out for a fresh one. “Previously, [patients] had to take the device off the cart, change the battery or turn off the alarms,” says Simon Johnson, director of global product marketing for SeQual. “You don’t have to do it every day, but when you do it’s a lot of pain for our patients. E3 lets patients change the battery without taking the device off the cart. It sounds simple, but it’s a big deal to our customers.”
Instead of having to work around the cart, the frame of the Eclipse 3’s cart incorporates a “stepped” design that makes a handy notch right around where the battery slides in and out. So, to change a spent battery, all a patient need do is simply pull it out in the same way they might pull out a paper tray on a printer, and replace it with a fresh unit on the fly.
The Eclipse 3’s new cart design lets patients swap out the battery on the fly without having to remove the POC from the cart.
Also, to improve ease of mobility, the Eclipse 3 comes with smaller AC and DC adapters. To conserve power the Eclipse 3 offers a new battery conservation feature. When it is in pulse dose mode, and an inspiration is not detected, the device will deliver a continuous flow of oxygen while continually searching for a breath every 15 seconds.
Tailored Oxygen Delivery
The Eclipse 3’s oxygen delivery can also be customized to ensure it meets patients’ changing needs during the day. The Eclipse 3 features SeQual’s autoSAT technology to consistently maintain an FiO2 by adjusting to the patient’s respiratory rate. If the rate increases, autoSAT will ensure the Eclipse 3 increases the oxygen output to ensure uninterrupted delivery of the set pulse dose volume. This lets the system automatically adjust to a patient’s increased oxygen demands that are part of everyday living.
“If you have patients ambulating, it can deliver higher bolus sizes to ensure that patient is well saturated,” Johnson says. “You can also customize the way the oxygen is delivered in terms of how fast. So you can tailor the oxygen delivery to the patient.”
In terms of eased maintenance the Eclipse 3 also works with SeQual’s Eclipse Data Acquisition Tool (EDAT) so that providers can remotely diagnose any problems with a device. Better yet, with a software upgrade, a provider can upgrade an E2 to an E3, without having to purchase a new device, Johnson says.
“We’d love for you to buy a new E3, but if you can’t afford it, you can do a quick $25 software upgrade and turn your E2 into an E3, Johnson says.
That backwards compatibility even extends to the newly designed cart, as well, he adds. In terms of key performance specifications, the Eclipse 3 is approved for 0.5-3.0 LPM continuous flow. It provides pulse dose volumes up to 96mL (in increments of 16 mL), and it now offers three new pulse dose volumes of 128mL, 160 mL and 192mL. The Eclipse 3 offers three rise time options — fast, medium and slow — and it provides adjustable pulse dose sensitivity settings. In terms of reimbursement, the Eclipse 3 is billed under Medicare codes E1390 and E1392.
SeQual Technologies
(800) 826-4610
www.sequal.com
This article originally appeared in the December 2009 issue of HME Business.