A Ranger LifeCycle Ambulance is inspected in Kabul. Photos Provided to China Daily

UNICEF-attached innovative, cheap motorcycle ambulances save lives

Just as the idea for BMW's iDrive dashboard control system came from the gaming industry and Nike's Shox shoes were adapted from Formula One racing shock absorbers, some remarkable healthcare innovations have been inspired by other industries.

One such idea, the Ranger LifeCycle Ambulance, was a focal point at the recent World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) in Doha. Essentially a motorcycle ambulance with a sidecar stretcher and a roll cage as protection, the Ranger LifeCycle is built to meet the medical needs of rural areas in developing countries because it is capable of negotiating difficult terrain.

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The LifeCycle was designed by Mike Norman, managing director and founder of eRanger, which makes the products. He says his initial idea was inspired by a TV appeal many years ago, in which a charity was raising funds for Land Rovers to be used by health workers in Africa.

"Being an avid motorcycle racer and bike designer, I felt that a motorcycle-based unit could do a similar job at a much reduced cost," Norman says.

"This idea lay dormant for many years until I was in a better position in life - older and wiser - to take up the challenge. So one cold winter morning in my motorcycle workshop in the UK I picked up my hacksaw and made the first cut. That was some 16 years ago."

eRanger sells the ambulance for around $6,000, less than 10 percent of the average cost of a four-wheel-drive ambulance. In the past few years, it has been used in Afghanistan and in many African countries where it carries patients and pregnant women to healthcare centers.

According to company data, since the motorcycle ambulances were deployed in 2005 in the Dowa district in central Malawi, southeast Africa, death rates among local mothers have dropped 60 percent.

The first prototype of the ambulance was made in 1997. After a two-year trial run in Zimbabwe, Norman's invention won the Shell Technology for Development Award in 1999.

This led the company to its major sponsor, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia, and to Nelson Mandela, who became the company's patron and supported it in expanding its operation in South Africa.