News › ZEISS • intro­du­ces video laryngoscope

ZEISS NURA helps during the intu­ba­tion of pati­ents and will be dona­ted to hos­pi­tals affec­ted by the COVID-19 pandemic

With the out­break of the COVID-19 cri­sis ear­lier this year, the Medi­cal Tech­no­logy seg­ment of ZEISS focu­sed on hel­ping address a gro­wing need for safety mea­su­res when medi­cal staff is trea­ting posi­tive tes­ted pati­ents. During intu­ba­tion, an often-neces­sary tre­at­ment path for severe cases of the infec­tion, doc­tors are espe­ci­ally prone to expo­sure given the close pro­xi­mity to the trans­mis­sion site. With the video laryn­go­scope ZEISS NURA, the com­pany offers pro­tec­tion to the user by enab­ling an increased distance bet­ween them­sel­ves and the patient.

Cor­po­rate Social Responsibility

“Sup­port­ing local com­mu­ni­ties and hel­ping the grea­ter good has been a core believe of ZEISS since the incep­tion of the com­pany. With the COVID-19 cri­sis still affec­ting many peo­ple around the globe, ZEISS wants to sup­port those who need it most by quickly making ZEISS NURA available,” says Dr. Lud­win Monz, Pre­si­dent and CEO of Carl Zeiss Medi­tec AG. The com­pany is dona­ting the initial bat­ches to hos­pi­tals with imme­diate need, after­wards ZEISS NURA will be available through the ZEISS sales channels.

To quickly address the glo­bal need for this tech­no­logy, the com­pany put all efforts on speed during the deve­lo­p­ment and release pro­cess, uti­li­zing their glo­bal net­work of sup­pli­ers and sales chan­nels. Dirk Brun­ner, Pre­si­dent Micro­sur­gery Carl Zeiss Medi­tec AG empha­si­zes: “Thanks to our know­ledge and many years of expe­ri­ence in the medi­cal device indus­try, we have mana­ged to quickly deve­lop a new visua­liza­tion tool that focu­ses on pro­vi­ding a simple and effi­ci­ent work­flow improvement.”

Redu­cing the Risk of Infec­tion through Safer Distance

In severe cases of COVID-19, mecha­ni­cal ven­ti­la­tion is often requi­red to give pati­ents the neces­sary respi­ra­tory sup­port. During intu­ba­tion with regu­lar laryn­go­sco­pes, there is usually little distance bet­ween the pro­vi­der and the pati­ent, incre­asing the poten­tial risk of infec­tion for the health­care professionals.

The new ZEISS NURA allows for a safer distance by pro­vi­ding medi­cal staff with a laryn­go­scope that has an ergo­no­mic design and simple work­flow. The Mac­in­tosh spa­tula com­bi­ned with an inte­gra­ted camera and a LED light allows for easy visua­liza­tion of rele­vant ana­to­mical struc­tures on the screen. Con­cep­tua­li­zed as a sin­gle-use laryn­go­scope, ZEISS NURA takes the guess­work out of clea­ning, while mee­ting hygiene requirements.

“We want to create a distance bet­ween us and the pati­ent to reduce the direct expo­sure to aero­sols. This is only pos­si­ble when using a video laryn­go­scope, not with con­ven­tio­nal laryn­go­scopy. The direct advan­tage of the ZEISS NURA is the design fea­turing sin­gle use blades where we have no dis­cus­sion how to ste­ri­lize and if the nor­mal ste­ri­liza­tion cycle kills all the viru­ses,” says Dr. Doro­thee Hock, Atten­ding phy­si­cian Anes­the­sio­logy at the Bezirks­kran­ken­haus Guenz­burg, Germany.

Ship­ments to COVID-19 hot­spots in preparation

With the first batch deli­vered to a Euro­pean COVID-19 cen­ter, the com­pany is pre­pa­ring ship­ment of the next 5000 units to hos­pi­tals around the world. In mar­kets like India and the USA, where levels of new infec­tions are still incre­asing, the visua­liza­tion tech­no­logy ZEISS NURA should help make crow­ded inten­sive care units a little bit safer for the staff.

Brief Pro­file

Carl Zeiss Medi­tec AG (ISIN: DE 0005313704), which is lis­ted on the MDAX and TecDAX of the Ger­man stock exch­ange, is one of the world’s lea­ding medi­cal tech­no­logy com­pa­nies. The Com­pany sup­plies inno­va­tive tech­no­lo­gies and appli­ca­tion-ori­en­ted solu­ti­ons desi­gned to help doc­tors improve the qua­lity of life of their pati­ents. The Com­pany offers com­plete solu­ti­ons, inclu­ding implants and con­su­ma­bles, to dia­gnose and treat eye dise­a­ses. The Com­pany crea­tes inno­va­tive visua­liza­tion solu­ti­ons in the field of micro­sur­gery. With 3,232 employees (as of 30 Sep­tem­ber 2019) world­wide, the Group gene­ra­ted reve­nue of €1,459.3m in fis­cal year 2018/19 (as of 30 September).

The Group’s head office is loca­ted in Jena, Ger­many, and it has sub­si­dia­ries in Ger­many and abroad; more than 50 per­cent of its employees are based in the USA, Japan, Spain and France. The Cen­ter for Appli­ca­tion and Rese­arch (CARIn) in Banga­lore, India and the Carl Zeiss Inno­va­tions Cen­ter for Rese­arch and Deve­lo­p­ment in Shang­hai, China, streng­then the Company’s pre­sence in these rapidly deve­lo­ping eco­no­mies. Around 41 per­cent of Carl Zeiss Medi­tec AG’s shares are in free float. The remai­ning approx. 59 per­cent are held by Carl Zeiss AG, one of the world’s lea­ding groups in the opti­cal and opto­elec­tro­nic industries.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion visit: www.zeiss.com/med

Press Cont­act

Sebas­tian Frericks
Direc­tor Inves­tor Relations
Carl Zeiss Medi­tec AG
+49 3641 220–116
moc.ssiez@cetidem.srotsevni

Petra Ret­ten­maier
Head of Mar­ke­ting Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons Visualization
Carl Zeiss Medi­tec AG
+49 3641 220–331
moc.ssiez@dem.sserp