In 2014, Argentinean doctor Alejandro Savire and his team appeared with an invention in the United Nations Office for Children’s UNICEF global contest for young innovators. The Camilla Inteligente (Smart Stretcher) is its name, and it was designed to transport severely injured and polytraumatized patients without touching them and, therefore, without suffering further trauma or major injuries. It is also designed to transport Ebola patients.
At that time, Savire’s invention, who was 35 years old, was the only South American one among the finalists of the contest that Unicef organized along with Socialab.
According to the newspaper La Provincia SJ, Savire designed the Smart Stretcher with his father, Francisco Savire, who was a professor of Applied Mechanics at the National University of San Juan, and also Darío Maldonado, bioengineer, and Adrian Vasquez.
In 2014, the invention had been already patented in 130 countries, according to the newspaper.
Savire is now 40 years old. He is a native of the province of Mendoza in Argentina, in the west of the country. Throughout these five years he has continued to pitch his invention around the world.
The Smart Stretcher, Savire said in an interview with israeleconomico.com, can move and transport a person without touching them “in less than a minute.” The rectangular base of the stretcher, which also contains a series of splints, is ergonomic and it slides along “certain anatomical points” underneath the injured body. “You don’t touch the person, you don’t aggravate the injuries, and you don’t cause new ones,” Savire said.
This interview took place in April this year. Savire was in Tel Aviv, in Israel, with his partner Lucas Saldaña to present his invention at MeetHub, a joint program between the Argentine embassy in Israel and the Israel Latin American Chamber of Commerce, for the exchange of entrepreneurs between countries.
The objective of the Smart Stretcher, according to its website, is to humanize the transfer of people in vulnerable conditions and thus change the paradigm of transfer methods, which are commonly made with sheets or rescue boards.
“In Argentina, the unstable economic situation leaves us no choice but to look outside the country. We are currently evaluating manufacturing abroad and analyzing recent international proposals,” Savire told IQ Latino.
Recently, the Israel Emergency and Rescue Service received Savire and his team. Dov Maisel, the head of this service’s Emergency Department, said that they would use the Smart Stretcher in their service, to give “added value to the work of rescuing and transferring people,” Via Mendoza reports.
The invention of Savire and his team is also intended for patients with the Ebola virus. According to the World Health Organization, health workers are among those most at risk of infection.
“Ebola is a virus that is transmitted in a high percentage due to direct contact with the patients’ secretions. For this reason it is fundamental to secure the staff in charge of the transfer so as to avoid direct contact with the infected person. Incorporating Camilla Inteligente as a part of the PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) we would provide protection and extra safety to the people involved in the transfer,” says the product website.
The Smart Stretcher is also applicable to football, where sprains, fractures, tears and ligament injuries are common among football players.
According to Via Mendoza, Barcelona Football Club received Savire’s team and will use the invention “inside the field and in the rest of the stadium”.
“The Smart Stretcher team continues to work and improve the product in terms of weight and its ability to fold with the use of new manufacturing materials. These improvements have already been patented worldwide,” the publication adds.
The Argentine team Boca Juniors, says Via Mendoza, “will be the first one in Argentina” to use the Smart Stretcher. So will the Argentine Rugby Union.