GE Healthcare and KARL STORZ SE & Co. KG renew their support for the Tour de Suisse.

With two weeks to go before the start of the Tour de Suisse Men and Women, preparations are in full swing for the nine day cycling extravaganza. “One of the major tasks facing us is to guarantee the highest level of safety for our professional cyclists on each Stage,” explains David Loosli, Sports Director of the Tour de Suisse.

As a sport with a high risk level, the areas of active route safety provided by police and civilian motorcycle crews as well as the provision of emergency medical care require a great deal of attention. The latter will again this year be provided by the cooperation between two leading medical technology manufacturers, GE Healthcare and KARL STORZ.

Together they provide the medical team; led by Medical Director Dr. Roland Kretsch, with the latest generation of innovative devices. In this way injured cyclists may be treated directly at the accident site with the aid of a mobile pocket ultrasound device for severe internal injuries, enabling decisions on targeted emergency measures to be made in a matter of moments. “If, for example, the lungs of a casualty are compromised, it may be necessary to perform emergency life-saving intervention prior to ambulance transportation to the appropriate hospital. Therefore, it is vital to diagnose such injuries immediately,” explains emergency physician Dr. Raphael Siepe. And if, in the worst case, anaesthesia or artificial respiration is required, a small camera system from KARL STORZ, known as the C-MAC^® video laryngoscope, enables doctors or paramedics to quickly secure the airway. “We are both grateful and proud that we have such innovative partners in emergency medical care in the form of GE Healthcare and KARL STORZ, contributing to the overall high safety standard of our event,” says Tour Director Olivier Senn.