Zambulance: a local healthcare solution with global potential

(Zambikes)

The Zambia-based bike company Zambikes has created a bike-powered ambulance to empower communities and save lives by expediting urgent transport in hard to reach areas with added comfort.

The Zambikes site explains, "Patients are no longer being ferried to health centers on ox carts or wheelbarrows - just attach the Zambulance to any bicycle or push manually."

This innovative hyper-local solution could help communities worldwide and encourage innovative alternatives to the traditional ambulance.

According to the World Bank's Millennium Development Report on Maternal Health, "The primary means of preventing maternal deaths is to provide rapid access to emergency obstetrical care, including treatment of hemorrhages, infections, hypertension, and obstructed labor."

A Mayo Clinic 2005 US health transport evaluation found "lives actually are saved or lost within six minutes."

"More than 60% of people in developing countries live more than 8km away from the nearest health facility and this distance is likely to be increased in rural parts of Africa," noted Transaid, a UK international development organization.

Zambulance seems to be the world's first bike-powered ambulance with customizing options like a "half-canopy, full-canopy, an IV hanger, TBA kit rack or another modification."

However, in 2008 Benoît Angibaud designed the Jaambaaro, a pedal-powered ambulance from salvaged parts. See it: http://www.yankodesign.com/2008/07/10/put-the-pedal-to-the-medical/

Zambulance: http://www.new.zambikes.org/index.php/products-a-services/zambulance