Ukrainian company has launched eTurniket - a non-profit project aimed at helping the military
A tourniquet is a device that came from the NATO military and is used for emergency pre-hospital aid to temporarily stop bleeding by circularly clamping the limb. Usually, it is a strong strip with a sticky self-adhesive tape on one side, a sling inside to help it tighten, a stick (lever) on the outside, as well as a buckle, a lever lock, and a place to record the time when the tourniquet was applied. Each Ukrainian Armed Forces soldier must be equipped with 2 tourniquets.
What is eTurniket and how the idea to create it came about
This is a WEBSPARK social project aimed at helping the military, and here’s what the company’s founder and CEO Yevhen Katrych says about it: - Many volunteers are trying to help our military with money, purchases, production, and this is certainly good, but such help cannot always be useful. A tourniquet is not a case where it is appropriate to experiment and use something untested, so we decided to implement a resource that will help volunteers and the military get tested information about the quality of the tourniquet, and help manufacturers to know how effective their product is. A low-quality tourniquet is worse than no tourniquet at all because it gives false hope. Back at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, when there were few tourniquets in general (and especially few of high quality), we faced the problem and experienced it firsthand.
The eTurniket team has analyzed all the available information on the web and started to form its own rating. Over time, it turned out that there was not enough relevant data, and the data that existed was quickly losing its relevance.
It is important to understand that a low-quality tourniquet may not stop bleeding, create too little pressure, or even break. As a result, a person can lose a limb or even bleed to death.
Here’s what phlebologist and vascular surgeon Dmytro Androshchuk had to say about this: - The worst thing for a doctor is when he knows that he could have helped a person, but the victim was already dead at the moment he got into his hands.
In this regard, there was a need to develop a platform that would work and collect up-to-date data on tourniquets with real-time testing to be able to provide verified information from experts on the reliability and quality of the selected tourniquet.
The project was presented in the summer of 2022, at a time when there was an urgent need for information on the quality of army tourniquets. Since then, it has been constantly updated and improved for ease of use and to expand the testing data.
How to interact with eTurniket and what information you can receive
The user can get information about the tourniquet’s certification, whether it has been tested, and see the conclusions of experts (military doctors and tactical medics), the actual price, a link to the manufacturer’s website, and the rating of the corresponding tourniquet. You can also search by name, and country of manufacture, filter by CoTCCC certification, and share the link to the tourniquet on social media.
Project benefits
The еТurniket project is not engaged in testing but is a two-sided platform that connects experts with tourniquet manufacturers on the market. Thus, еТurniket highlights both positive and negative test results with chronology and criteria, which plays an important role and allows you to check the tourniquet for proper functioning.
The team is actively engaging military experts, doctors, and manufacturers who will become part of the project and help provide the best, most functional, and most affordable tourniquet option for the defenders. Also, the еТurniket team has developed a testing program for tourniquets made in Ukraine, which allows to test their products in extreme field conditions and help the defenders of Ukraine.
