The Biophone is a combination voice and

telemetry Telemetry is the in situ data collection, collection of measurements or other data at remote points and their automatic data transmission, transmission to receiving equipment (telecommunication) for monitoring. The word is derived from the Gr ...

radio communications system used in the 1970s and '80s by

paramedics A paramedic is a registered healthcare professional who works autonomously across a range of health and care settings and may specialise in clinical practice, as well as in education, leadership, and research. Not all ambulance personnel are p ...

to talk to the physicians supervising them from a hospital base station. The key difference between this unit and another two-way radio was that it had the ability to transmit a patient's electrocardiogram. Biophone - 1

The Biophone was produced by the Biocom Company. The Biophone 3502 used the internals of a

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

PE-series handheld radio mounted into an orange case, which was made of an orange laminated fiberglass with aluminum trim. The Biophone had an internal rechargeable battery that powered the sensor equipment, the radio, and an amplifier that raised the transmitting power to 50 watts. The unit had a connector for a vehicle-mounted antenna allowing better signal reception and transmission from the back of an ambulance. The Biophone could have any 6 (the maximum that could fit in the PE radio) of the 10 UHF medical duplex channels in the 450-470 MHz range. This allowed flexibility in the overall system. The NiCad battery could be charged up in 15 minutes.

In popular culture

This Biophone radio can be seen throughout the 1970s TV series ''

Emergency! ''Emergency!'' is an American action-adventure medical drama television series jointly produced by Mark VII Limited and Universal Television. Debuting on NBC as a midseason replacement on January 15, 1972, replacing the two short-lived situatio ...

'', being used by the fictional Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic characters John Gage (

Randolph Mantooth Randolph Mantooth (born Randy DeRoy Mantooth, September 19, 1945) is an American actor who has worked in television, documentaries, theater, and film for more than 40 years. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he was discovere ...

) and Roy DeSoto (

Kevin Tighe Kevin () is the anglicized form of the Irish masculine given name (; mga, Caoimhghín ; sga, Cóemgein ; Latinized as ). It is composed of "dear; noble"; Old Irish and ("birth"; Old Irish ). The variant ''Kevan'' is anglicized from , an ...

). The actual Biophone 3502 radio used on the show was donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20110711082756/http://www.general-devices.com/files/learning_pdf/From_BioCom_to_Bluetooth.pdf * http://www.bchwys.ca/E51/EMF_ME9.htm{{dead link, date=November 2016 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Emergency! Goods manufactured in the United States Medical equipment

In popular culture

See also

External links