Spacelabs Healthcare ARKON™

Spacelabs Healthcare, dedicated to developing and supporting some of the world’s most respected medical devices and services, turned to Design Concepts to create a revolutionary concept for an anesthesia system. Spacelabs challenged the firm’s design team to envision a dramatically different anesthesia system - a system designed to provide the highest level of patient care, while understanding and respecting the needs of anesthesiologists.

Design Concepts team of strategists, researchers, industrial designers and engineers conducted interviews and observational research around the globe. Their findings, gathered on 4 continents, developed a deep understanding of the current market, the clinical needs of patients and the user needs of anesthesiologists.

The team’s design solution, ARKON™, is an anesthesia delivery system that provides the highest degree of functionality, comfort and control. Arkon™ emphasizes two areas of the machine: the “clinic” and the “office.” The clinic area expands outward to accommodate a variety of workflows while providing a wide-angle view that keeps anesthesiologists facing their patients. Features like a rotating breathing circuit and centralized controls extend the reach of the anesthesiologist by allowing a new level of flexibility that helps optimize their delivery of anesthesia. The office introduces natural storage for equipment and paperwork, multiple height work surfaces and drop-down shelves that afford a level of comfort not seen in other systems.

Introduced in 2012, ARKON™ puts the needs of patients front and center while meeting the needs of anesthesiologists worldwide.