Acrel Medical IT System Establishes Absolute Safety Barriers for Critical Hospital Departments

 

In the operating room at 3:00 AM, a craniotomy under the shadowless lamp had been ongoing for six hours. Suddenly, the electrosurgical unit in the surgeon's hand emitted a faint "clicking" sound, and the monitor screen flickered momentarily—yet the patient's vital signs remained stable, with no impact on the procedure. This was all thanks to the invisible guardian in the operating room's electrical distribution system: the medical IT system.

 

When medical devices come into direct contact with the patient's body, even a microcurrent leakage of 0.01 amperes may induce ventricular fibrillation, posing life-threatening risks. The grounding system (TN-S) in traditional medical settings cannot completely eliminate such risks.

 

 

The medical IT system isolates its power supply from the ground via a transformer, preventing dangerous currents during the first insulation fault. It also triggers an immediate alarm for maintenance, effectively eliminating the risk of micro-shock.

 

 

01 The Hidden Threat to Medical Safety: The Neglected Risk of "Microshock"

 

In medical settings such as intensive care units (ICUs), operating rooms, and neonatal wards, various life-sustaining electronic devices are densely arranged around patients. When a patient has catheters or electrodes implanted in their body or is in a moist surface state, their body resistance significantly decreases to approximately 500Ω.

 

If a minimal leakage current directly flows through the heart via the device at this time, even a current as low as 10μA may induce ventricular fibrillation—a phenomenon termed 'micro-shock' —which has become a significant electrical safety hazard in modern medical environments.

 

In a traditional ground fault system (TN-S), when an insulation fault occurs, the fault current returns to the power supply through the protective conductor. Although this process triggers the tripping of the protective device, there is still a sufficiently large current passing through the patient's body instantaneously.

 

 

 

 

More critically, single-point ground faults are often not promptly detected, allowing equipment to continue operating. When the next ground fault occurs, it may form a short-circuit loop, leading to catastrophic consequences. The design philosophy of medical IT systems specifically addresses this critical vulnerability: by isolating power supply, it ensures uninterrupted system operation during the first fault while simultaneously triggering immediate alarms.

 

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 60364-7-710 standard and China's "Code for Electrical Design of Civil Buildings" GB51348 both clearly stipulate: In Class 2 medical facilities, medical electrical equipment used for life support, surgical procedures, and other devices located in the "patient area" must be powered by medical IT systems.

 

 

02 Acrel Medical IT System: Three-layer Protection Architecture and Intelligent Monitoring Core

 

The Acrel Medical IT system is not a standalone device, but a comprehensive solution composed of isolation transformers, insulation monitors, current transformers, insulation fault locators, and alarm display equipment. The system adopts a three-tier progressive protection architecture to ensure absolute reliability.

 

 

The first layer serves as the isolation protection core: Acrel's medical isolation transformer employs specialized processes and materials to completely isolate the power supply system from the earth. Even in the event of a single-point-to-ground fault, no loop current is formed, ensuring that the electrical potential to which patients are exposed is identical to the ground potential, thereby fundamentally eliminating the risk of electric shock.

 

The second layer constitutes the intelligent monitoring core: The Acrel AIM-M100 Medical Intelligent Insulation Monitor serves as the system's "brain," continuously monitoring the ground insulation resistance 24/7. When the insulation resistance falls below the preset threshold (typically 50kΩ), it immediately triggers an audible and visual alarm. However, the system maintains uninterrupted power supply to ensure continuous operation of medical equipment.

 

The third layer is the precise location and early warning system: By installing current transformers and ASG100 test signal generators on each circuit, the system can accurately pinpoint the specific circuit causing insulation faults, significantly reducing maintenance personnel's troubleshooting time. Additionally, the system monitors transformer temperature rise and load rate, providing preventive maintenance alerts.

 

The uniqueness of Acrel Medical IT cabinet lies in its modular design and comprehensive monitoring capabilities. In addition to basic insulation monitoring, the system integrates multiple functions such as transformer temperature monitoring, overload monitoring, and wire connection/disconnection monitoring, with all monitoring parameters displayed intuitively via a 7-inch color touchscreen.

 

 

03 Full Coverage Application Scenarios: From Operating Rooms to Hemodialysis Centers

 

The application scope of medical IT systems has expanded from traditional operating rooms and ICUs to more critical medical scenarios.

 

In modern operating rooms, the Acrel Medical IT system provides isolated power supply for all patient-contacting equipment, including anesthesia machines, ventilators, electrosurgical units, and monitors. The system ensures that even in the event of insulation failure, protective devices will not trip or cut off power, thereby maintaining uninterrupted surgical procedures.

 

 

The intensive care unit (ICU) demands extremely high power continuity, as all life support devices connected to patients rely on stable electrical supply. Medical IT systems not only provide security assurance in this environment, but their early insulation fault alarm function also enables healthcare professionals to detect potential equipment issues in advance, thereby preventing potential hazards.

 

In neonatal wards and obstetric departments, infants and pregnant women exhibit heightened sensitivity to electrical shocks, making the safety assurance provided by medical IT systems particularly critical. This is especially true in scenarios such as incubators and neonatal monitoring, where system reliability directly impacts the life safety of the most vulnerable patients.

 

The hemodialysis center represents another critical application scenario. During dialysis, the patient's blood circulates in an extracorporeal circuit, where electrical safety directly impacts treatment safety. The Acrel Medical IT system provides isolated power supply for dialysis machines and water treatment equipment, ensuring the entire dialysis process is safe and free from risks.

 

 

With the advancement of medical technology, novel healthcare facilities such as cardiac catheterization laboratories and interventional therapy centers have gradually become critical application domains for medical IT systems. In these environments, the simultaneous operation of various high-frequency and high-precision equipment imposes higher requirements on power quality and safety.

 

 

04 Digital Transformation: From Safe Power Supply to Intelligent Management

 

Modern hospitals are evolving toward intelligent and digitalized systems, with Acrel's medical IT solutions having transitioned from basic security devices to smart management nodes.

 

The system connects to the hospital's building equipment monitoring system or power monitoring system via standard communication interfaces (RS485/Ethernet) to enable remote centralized monitoring. In the hospital's main control room or engineering department monitoring center, administrators can monitor the real-time operational status of all medical IT systems across the hospital, receive alarm notifications, and enhance response efficiency.

 

 

 

 

The intelligent power management system software for medical facilities, specifically developed by Acrel, provides comprehensive system monitoring, data recording, and analysis capabilities. The system automatically generates operational reports, maintenance reminders, and fault statistics, assisting hospitals in establishing a scientific and well-structured maintenance system for medical electrical equipment.

 

The system's preventive maintenance function is particularly noteworthy. By analyzing the trend of insulation resistance changes, it can predict equipment aging and alert maintenance personnel for preventive inspections before insulation faults occur, truly achieving a management upgrade from' post-failure repair 'to' predictive maintenance'.

 

 

 

 

For large hospital groups or multi-campus hospitals, the system supports cloud-based data aggregation and analysis, enabling unified management and benchmarking across campuses. This centralized management model not only enhances operational efficiency but also provides comprehensive medical electrical safety data support for hospital administrators.

 

After the comprehensive deployment of the Acrel Medical IT system at the Cardiovascular Surgery Center of a tertiary hospital in Shanghai, a set of impressive data was recorded: during the three-year operation of the system, a total of 47 insulation degradation events were alerted, 39 potentially faulty devices were located and addressed, and 8 power interruption incidents that could affect surgeries were successfully prevented.

 

What impressed the hospital most was the system performance during an emergency surgery at midnight: when an extracorporeal circulation machine that had been in continuous use for years showed a decline in insulation, the system immediately triggered an alarm while maintaining power supply, allowing the surgery to proceed smoothly. Maintenance personnel quickly replaced the standby equipment based on the system's positioning, with no interference to the surgical process throughout. This exemplifies the value of medical IT systems—providing the most reliable safety assurance for life protection in the unseen.