London's Air Ambulance trials high-tech new brain scanner

New technology being trialled by London's Air Ambulance could revolutionalise treatement for people with potentially life-threatening head injuries.

A new scanner which detects blood clots on the brain could improve the ambulance's emergency treatment after crashes and other medical emergencies.

It allows medics to diagnose potentially life-threatening head injuries earlier and more accurately.

The Infrascanner is a small hand held device that takes less than two minutes to operate, and can help medics make life saving decisions while en route to hospital.

Mark Wilson, London’s Air Ambulance Doctor and Consultant Neurosurgeon at Imperial College London, said: “It is really important to be able to find out what is going on inside a patient’s head, and get a clearer picture of any injuries sustained.

"By doing this during the transfer to hospital, we hope to be able to expedite treatments, such as surgery, by knowing in advance what type of brain injury the patient has.”

The device has a 90 per cent accuracy rate when used in hospitals for finding clinically relevant blood clots on the brain, and the Air Ambulance charity is aiming to match these figures in the pre-hospital environment.

Last year London’s Air Ambulance treated 1806 patients, 60 per cent of whom were involved in road traffic collisions and falls from heights, incidents which commonly cause head injury. ​

The pilot Infrascanner trial by London’s Air Ambulance started in spring this year and will complete in spring 2016 – and the scanner has been used on more than 60 of London’s Air Ambulance patients to date.