Hamilton EM7

Our ethnographic research team spent time with EMS crews inside their ambulances and response vehicles. We watched how ventilators, monitors, and airway kits are stored, carried, and used beside a stretcher.

Back in the studio, we organized every observation on an insight wall. One early question shaped the whole project: should the controls be a physical knob, a touchscreen, or both?

Research told us what paramedics needed. Our innovation consulting work turned that into a clear position for the product.

Starting from the Psycho-Aesthetics® Opportunity Zone, we defined where EM7 should sit against existing emergency and transport ventilators, including Hamilton’s own T1, and set the design criteria the whole team worked to: light enough to carry with one hand, rugged enough for the back of an ambulance, and simple enough to set up in seconds.

Our industrial design team explored a wide range of forms, from compact boxes to handled cases, testing where the screen, control knob, and carry handle should sit. We checked each direction against the Hamilton design language, so EM7 belongs to the same family as the Hamilton T1 while staying smaller and focused on one job: emergency ventilation.

We then worked the form around the inside of the device, studying how the turbine, battery, and patient connections fit within a compact, rugged shell, and built full-size configuration models to test size, balance, and carry options in the hand.

A paramedic’s first contact with EM7 is through its controls. Our UI/UX design team shaped the control interaction around the touchscreen area: where the screen sits, the size and position of the press-and-turn knob, and the hard keys, including a dedicated CPR key, so the most urgent actions are always one press away, even with gloves on.

The HAMILTON-EM7 continues a long partnership between Hamilton Medical and RKS that includes the Hamilton T1 and Hamilton C6.

It shows how medical device design grounded in real field research can turn a complex, life-critical machine into a tool a paramedic can trust in seconds.