Clinical & InstitutionalJuly 9, 2026·6 min read
By the CIRRUS Editorial Team — how we write and source this
ICU, transport, MRI-conditional: how the ventilator market actually segments
Part of the series: The Ventilator Procurement GuideA $12,500 transport unit and a $58,000 MRI-conditional platform aren't competitors — they're different tools. The segmentation, decoded for procurement.
Ventilator pricing only makes sense once you see the segments. In our own catalog the span runs from $12,500 (Dräger's Oxylog VE300, a transport unit) to $58,000 (Hamilton's MR1, an MRI-conditional platform) — and nothing in between is a 'better or worse' version of anything else. Full-featured ICU platforms — Hamilton's C6, Dräger's Evita V800, Getinge's Servo-u, Mindray's SV800 — anchor the top of the general-care range because they carry the broadest mode sets, the most extensive monitoring, and the graphical interfaces critical-care teams standardize on.
Below them sit the mid-acuity and sub-acute machines — Hamilton C3 and C1, Dräger's Savina 300 and Evita V600, Getinge's Servo-air, Mindray's SV600 and SV300 — built for step-down units, long-term acute care, and facilities that need dependable invasive and non-invasive ventilation without every ICU research feature. This is the segment where fleet math matters most, because these are the machines bought in quantity.
Transport is its own discipline: Zoll's Z Vent 731, EMV+ and AEV, Hamilton's T1, and Dräger's Oxylog line are engineered around battery autonomy, weight, ruggedization, and operation in moving vehicles and austere environments — constraints an ICU platform never faces. Specialized segments then branch further: neonatal-dedicated platforms (Dräger's Babylog VN800, Getinge's Servo-n), high-flow therapy devices (Hamilton HF90), and MRI-conditional machines built to run inside the magnet room.
The procurement takeaway: define the care setting first, and the candidate list mostly writes itself. The expensive mistake in this category isn't overpaying within a segment — pricing is fairly rational — it's buying across segments: an ICU platform pressed into transport duty, or a transport unit asked to serve as a primary ICU machine. Our concierge team quotes each unit against the setting you name, which is why the conversation starts with 'where will it run,' not 'what's your budget.'
This article is general health information, not medical advice, and doesn’t replace evaluation by your own physician. Talk to a doctor about anything specific to your own diagnosis or treatment.