BY JAMES CARELESS
Oxygen is a vital life-saving substance in emergency medical response — and one that is dangerous onto the battlefi eld. This is why Thornhill Medical’s MOVES SLC is such a vitally important tool for medics today. MOVES SLC is a rugged, portable life support system that combines an oxygen (O2) concentrator, an O2-conserving ventilator, suction, and complete vital signs monitoring in a single compact battery-operated system. It does all of this without needing O2 cylinders, because the MOVES SLC’s oxygen concentrator extracts O2 from the surrounding air.
Thornhill Medical’s MADM Field Anesthesia System is another innovative device that is saving lives in conflict zones. MADM is an inline gas anesthesia vaporizer that can be hand-carried to safely and accurately deliver anesthetic gas to medical patients anywhere, and at any time. Not surprisingly, Thornhill Medical’s rugged and mobile medical technology has been adopted by the U.S. military.
In 2017, Thornhill Medical partnered with Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC, Canada’s government to government contracting agency) to sign a five-year, $14 million (USD) contract with the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) for MADM. Meanwhile, Thornhill Medical’s first generation of MOVES had already been specifically developed for the USMC.
In recent times, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Health have deployed MOVES SLC units during the war in Ukraine. As well, the U.S. Navy has adopted MOVES SLC as part of its fi rst En-Route Care System aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group. On January 11, 2024, CCC announced a contract between it and Thornhill Medical to supply the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) with up to $356 million (USD) of anesthesia and life-support system equipment.
“Thornhill Medical is a purely Canadian success story for us, in regards to the export to the U.S. DOD,” said Chris Lam, CCC’s Manager of Contract Structuring. “This is one of the biggest contracts for a Canadian SME that CCC has signed with the U.S. DOD in the last decade.”
“I am pleased to see the wider U.S. military having immediate access to this innovative, proven, lifesaving technology to support military medicine in the adverse forward environments in which they must work,” said U.S. Army Lieutenant General (Ret’d) Dr. James B. Peake, who led the U.S Army’s Medical Department as Surgeon General and is now a Thornhill Medical Military Advisory Council member. “It takes us a step closer in the continuing quest to ‘Deliver Good Medicine in Bad Places’ anytime, anywhere!”
FROM THE LAB TO THE WORLD
Thornhill Medical was established in 2004 after being spun off from the University Health Network (UHN), a network of hospitals and medical research organization based in Toronto. The company was co-founded by University of Toronto researchers/professors Joseph Fisher and Ludwik Fedorko.
“Our company was originally formed to provide a proof of concept of the MOVES system in response to a direct request from the U.S. military,” said Lesley Gouldie, President and CEO of Thornhill Medical. “The initial medical technology for the USMC, known as the MOVES 300 at that time, led to further innovations to be developed including MADM.”
This success has not gone unnoticed by the world’s militaries: “The Canadian Armed Forces, the Belgium forces, the Singapore Navy, the Israeli Defense Forces, and the Australian Defence Force have all adopted the MOVES SLC,” Gouldie said. As previously mentioned, the MOVES SLC has also proved itself in Ukraine.
SOLUTIONS FOR A CHANGING BATTLEFIELD
The popularity of Thornhill Medical’s MADM and MOVES SLC aligns with changing realities on the world’s battlefi elds, as recognized by the U.S. military. What they have seen is how combat has changed from WWII and the Korean war, when injured soldiers could be readily evacuated from combat zones, to Iraq, Afghanistan and now Ukraine where evacuations are difficult to execute.
“Historically, what used to happen when a warfi ghter was injured is that they would be stabilized and then medevac’d. Whereas now, the difficulty – or outright denial – of aerial access means injured war fighters require critical care in theatre for an extended period of time,” Gouldie told CDR.”
Fortunately, Thornhill Medical has medical technology solutions available today that are future-proofed for these kinds of conflict scenarios. “With MADM and MOVES SLC, we are extremely well positioned to help provide optimal care for the future battlefield, in these large-scale combat operations that are anticipated,” Gouldie said. “And I think we really have demonstrated this unique capability and its usefulness due to having 184 MOVES SLCs deployed in Ukraine. They’ve been used on the front lines and to transport patients in trains from the eastern front back to major hospital centres, in all different kinds of care, from stabilization to surgery.”
A PROMISING FUTURE
As impressive as Thornhill Medical’s success is, it did not come easily. It took three-four years of back-and-forth work between the company, CCC and the U.S. government to meet U.S. DOD DLA standards. “What happens in these export deals is that the contract is awarded by the DLA to CCC, who in turn subcontracts us to provide the equipment,” said Gouldie. “So not only did we have to go through fair and reasonable pricing certification with CCC, but we also had to go through a pricing audit with the DLA.”
On the upside, now that Thornhill Medical and CCC have this contract in place with the DLA, it makes it easy for U.S. military customers to buy MADMs and MOVES SLCs under a five-year contract, with an option for the DLA to renew it for five more years. “This means we have a framework in place for the next 10 years to provide existing and potential customers in the U.S. Defense framework with our technology in a very substantive way,” Gouldie concluded. “The future looks bright for Thornhill Medical.”
James Careless is CDR’s Ottawa Bureau Chief
