Hi-tech medical van concept that can serve rural France unveiled
New vehicle aims to provide medical services in areas lacking doctors, equipped with advanced diagnostic tools
If rolled out, the van could allow people to be diagnosed remotely
Horyzon
French car maker Renault has revealed a concept medical van able to give hi-tech check-ups to patients in areas of France which lack doctors.
The concept, called U1st Vision, would enable a medical assistant to visit areas facing a 'medical desert' crisis.
Using equipment linked directly to doctors and hospitals, it will allow people to have check-ups, be diagnosed at a distance and have follow-up treatment.
“The idea is to redefine the way health needs are met by drawing on our increasingly interconnected world and a new capacity to measure in real time health parameters thanks to intelligent tools,” Renault wrote, describing the concept.
Read more: New plan to serve areas of France without doctors
Remote diagnosis
Among items of the kit proposed for the van are small cheap X-ray machines which can send images directly to a doctor or other health professional, and eye and hearing-test machines, which patients use themselves and which can be used for prescriptions for glasses or hearing aids.
Another element is a chair fitted with sensors that can measure blood pressure, oxygen levels, pulse and muscle tone, and send the results straight to a doctor or hospital.
The plan is for Renault and the other partners to move from the concept to a prototype by the middle of next year. It has been designed through Renault’s Software République software incubator.
A Renault spokesman told The Connexion that to date there had been no orders from French health authorities, but the company was confident that would change.
The French government officially describes an area lacking doctors as a désert médical and defines these as being either when there are not enough doctors for people living in an area, or where doctors have too many patients and so cannot give individual patients enough time or care.
Read more: What is being done to tackle France’s shortage of dermatologists?
Désert médical rules
Under rules introduced in 2017, each commune should have an Indicateur d’accessibilté potentielle localisée (APL) which determines whether it is a désert médical or not, but it appears there is very little central coordination.
In some areas, departments have taken an active role in addressing the problem, hiring young GPs on salaries (in France most GPs work for themselves), for areas where there are no GPs, following a wave of retirements of GPs who started work in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Young doctors increasingly prefer being salaried employees where they enjoy the benefits of 35-hour week days, paid holiday and higher pensions.
