A Raspberry Pi-powered ventilator will be tested in Colombia with the hope it will help support coronavirus patients in intensive care. It comes as a global shortage of ventilators is predicted with the swift rise in coronavirus infections.
According to the BBC, Marco Mascorro, a robotics engineer who had prior experience in building medical equipment, built a ventilator using the computer board predicting the high demand amid the coronavirus pandemic.
A number of healthcare workers responded to his ventilator prototype with crucial improvements and fixes and now it’s being trialled in two hospitals in Bogotá, Colombia ” the University Hospital of the Pontifical Xavierian University and Los Andes University ” before it’s expected to undergo animal and human trials.
Thanks to its use of everyday parts, which can be found in auto and plumbing supply stores, the design will allow those unable to access the typical high-grade parts needed.
“The fight against COVID-19 is like a race,” Omar Ramirez, who will lead the Colombian medical team’s trial, said to the BBC.
“All the world is competing against the disease, but on different tracks and what determines those different tracks is the access to resources and experience.”
The ventilator was made by Mascorro using the Raspberry Pi ” a crucial element to its functioning, according to the BBC. The computer board has the important task of setting the air pressure, opening and closing the ventilator’s valves and regulating whether a patient needs full or partial breathing assistance.
“The beauty of developing a software-centric system is we can make changes to the processes without doing much to the hardware,” he said to the BBC.
First, the prototype will undergo testing with artificial lungs and if successful, it will move on to animal trials. If all goes well, it’s expected human trials will be undertaken by as early as May. Usually this process would take a year or longer but given the urgency of this technology, a months-long process is now taking mere weeks.
With ventilators in high demand across the globe, the world will be watching Colombia.
[Via BBC]
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