IISER develop low-cost ventilator

Researchers at IISER Pune have developed a hybrid version of a ventilator developed in US and Italy — to bridge the demand-supply gap owing to the Covid-19 outbreak.

India has approximately 1.9 million hospitals beds, 95,000 ICU beds and 48,000 ventilators. Most of them are in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Telangana and Kerala.

“Critical COVID patients need a ventilator that is slightly more advanced in terms of features and usability,” said Umakant D Rapol, associate professor, physics department, IISER. “We have kept the ventilator simple yet efficient by incorporating design requirements and almost all functionalities that a doctor requires to treat patients,” he added. This prototype will cost between Rs 30,000-40,000, Sunil Nair, associate professor, physics department, IISER, said the ventilator has been tested for about half a million cycles in the laboratory.

It works on compressed air from the hospital or a dedicated compressor that provides clean air, the ventilator is also equipped with an additional self-assisted mode. The machine supports breathing which is initiated by the patient based on appropriate upper or lower air pressure triggers that are set by the operator. Researchers said one can remotely control and monitor the parameters of both the ventilator and the patient. One can also use a single computer to interact with many similar ventilators in a hospital, and monitor various parameters on a mobile phone.

**information collected from different sources.