Projects to ease hospital pressure
TWO innovative ventilator production projects could make a difference to the shortage of respiratory equipment for the fast rising number Covid-19 patients at South Africa’s hospitals.
The CSIR, an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), said yesterday that it and a number of local businesses had completed work on a local ventilator to be rolled out nationwide to patients showing respiratory distress in the early phase of infection.
The project was part of the government’s National Ventilator Project under the auspices of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), and was also supported by the Solidarity Fund.
The first batch of ventilators would be provided to state hospitals experiencing pressure due to the unavailability of equipment to deal with the pandemic, a statement from the CSIR said yesterday.
The device was designed and produced by the CSIR and local industry partners such as Siemens, Simera, Akacia, Gabler, Umoya and UCT, with others soon to join.
By June, the R&D (research and development) had been completed and the system was tested at UCT’s Medical Devices Laboratory. This led to regulatory approval and licensing obtained from the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra).
Talks were under way with the Department of Health and DTIC to produce additional devices before the end of next month.
The CSIR solution is a continuous positive airway pressure device that provides a mild level of oxygenated air pressure to keep the airways open and, thus, assist with breathing.
The units are non-invasive and applied easily – even outside of hospitals if need be – for intervention in cases where patients are at an early, non-intensive stage of respiratory distress caused by the coronavirus.
The device can be used in clinical environments, as well as temporary settings, such as field hospitals and quarantine facilities.
Under the project name, “CSIR Life” (Lung Inspiratory Flow Enabler), the system uses standard, hospital-grade oxygen supply, and features easy to use, on-device flow gages.
CSIR future production: manufacturing, executive manager Marti Sanne said: “While ensuring we achieved this in a short period of time, we had to ensure that we followed a rigorous, documented product life cycle methodology that would ensure scalable manufacturing, as well as compliance and licensing under Sahpra and guidelines of the World Health Organization.”
Siemens provided software support for the product life cycle management, as well as software to facilitate rapid production scaling.
Using a digital product life cycle design methodology also ensured it could be manufactured in multiple factories and in large volumes.
In another project, the CSIR was also working on a ventilator with a local partner to develop a solution for patients with more severe symptoms.
Meanwhile, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) engineering team said on Monday they had designed and developed portable 3D-printed mechanical ventilators.
The ventilator, named Aura Imprimere, meaning a breeze of air provided by printing, was portable and allowed off-grid operations for up to one-and-a-half hours.
The UJ-led team plans to distribute the active breathing circuit system on an “open source” basis, making the software and designs freely available to be produced anywhere in the world, provided that the producers own a 3D printer.