F1 team’s 100-hour race to deliver a breathing aid
FORMULA One engineers have helped to develop a breathing aid that can keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care.
The device, known as Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), is less invasive than ventilators and does not require patients to be sedated.
It has been used extensively in Italy and China for sufferers who need more support than an oxygen mask can offer.
Engineers and doctors from University College London (UCL) worked with Mercedes Formula One – based in Brackley, Northants – to develop the device in under 100 hours.
Professor David Lomas, from UCL, said: “It is, quite simply, a wonderful achievement to have gone from first meeting to regulator approval in just 10 days.
“It shows what can be done when universities, industry and hospitals join forces for the national good.”
Some 100 of the NHS-approved devices are now being delivered for trials at UCL Hospital, with a rapid roll-out across the country expected ahead of the surge in Covid-19 cases.
They work by pushing a mix of oxygen and air into the mouth and nose at a continuous rate, helping to increase the amount of oxygen entering the lungs.
Reports from Italy suggest around half of patients given CPAP have avoided the need for invasive mechanical ventilation.
Professor Tim Baker, of UCL’s mechanical engineering department, said: “Given the urgent need, we are thankful that we were able to reduce a process that could take years down to a matter of days.”
A consortium of UK firms from across the aerospace, automotive and medical sectors has also come together to produce ventilators.
The VentilatorChallengeUK consortium includes Airbus, BAE Systems, Ford, Rolls-Royce and Siemens.
The group has received orders for more than 10,000 ventilators from the Government, although official approval is still pending.
They have agreed a design which can be assembled from existing parts and will begin producing units this week.
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson hopes to have a vaccine by early 2021 and plans to start human testing by September.
Healthcare rival Moderna Inc is the front-runner in the race. A patient was dosed with their vaccine in an early-stage trial earlier this month.