I wonder if this hot search in Weibo today has caught your attention-# Cambridge University has developed a cheap ventilator #. According to Axel Zeitler, the project leader and a professor at the School of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology of Cambridge University, the team has completed the research and development of an "inexpensive" open source ventilator, allowing users to adjust their parameters according to their own needs.
The advantage of OVSI is that it reduces the complexity of the components used and can easily obtain parts from countries that can supply them in the existing supply chain. The cost of the whole machine is less than $65,438+0,000, which is only one tenth of the cost of the traditional medical ventilator.
Click on this topic and you can see a lot of praise. After all, the continuous shortage of ventilators under the spread of the epidemic has attracted attention for a long time.
However, some netizens are questioning, isn't this a snoring household ventilator? Can "cheap" have good goods?
Cheap and not castrated
In fact, although OVSI is cheap, it is really a ventilator that can be used in clinical medicine.
First of all, from the appearance, OVSI is not what we imagined. The official dimensions show that its length, width and height are 50cm, 40cm and 20cm respectively. This machine will be slightly larger than a 20-inch suitcase.
Fold up like a boarding box
Moreover, from the weight point of view, domestic ventilators are often around 2kg, while OVSI is nearly 20kg, which is very strong and heavier than some models of traditional ventilators.
In addition, although we don't know the specific design, from its verified working mode, OVSI has no function of castrating the ventilator at all.
We don't need to know what these three modes are, just look at how OVSI works with them. Official website showed that during this period, all patients' breathing needs can be met through OVSI, from conscious but needing auxiliary breathing due to decreased blood oxygen content to unconscious relying entirely on machine breathing.
Since it is so strong, how does OVSI achieve low cost?
Simply put, the Cambridge team actually controls the number of internal components. From the following figure, we can easily see that OVSI lacks many parts compared with the PB560 ventilator designed by Medtronic.
The OVSI structure is actually complete.
The design of Medtronic PB560 ventilator is much more complicated.
In March of this year, this open source ventilator project was initiated by Cambridge University, which attracted 60 clinicians, engineers and manufacturers from Britain and Africa to join, and many pairs of eyes kept a close eye on R&D, design, manufacturing and assembly. This is also the team's efforts to ensure performance.
For the same parts, the team will also give priority to the current supply situation. On the one hand, it is convenient for rapid mass production, on the other hand, the price is relatively cheap.
At present, OVSI has not passed the listing approval of MHRA in the UK. However, the team is currently further iterating the product prototype, and the latest version has passed the test specification of MHRA.
Life may be limited.
The only worry is that OVSI's life may not be too long.
Earlier, a doctor told Hu Weiwei that the minimum life of imported ventilators can reach 5 years, and the actual use of 10 years is not a problem.
In order to ensure the life of the ventilator, besides clinical safety testing, manufacturers also attach great importance to the durability of the machine. Wei Ximeng, CEO of Beifeng Technology, told Hu Weiwei that after the micro turbofan developed by the company in 20 18 was selected into Mindray's spare tire list, it had to undergo long-term continuous testing and verification, not to mention the assembled ventilator.
However, OVSI has only been established in March for a few months. Even if it passes the clinical use test, it will take longer to observe whether its life can stand the test.
Similar to OVSI, VITAL, a high-pressure ventilator specially developed by NASA to treat patients with COVID-19, also consists of fewer parts. The existing supply chain can meet the production demand and is easier to produce and maintain than traditional ventilators.
Nasa r&d team and its vital
The difference is that the original intention of NASA to build VITAL within 37 days is not to replace the traditional ventilator, but only to serve as first aid equipment in this epidemic. VITAL's service life is only 3~4 months.
"ICU is busy receiving patients from COVID-19 who need high-end ventilators," said Dr. J.D. Polk, chief health and medical officer of NASA. VITAL aims to reduce the possibility of patients entering the advanced stage of the disease.
In other words, considering the rapid spread of the epidemic, NASA gave up persistence. And this must be related to the number of parts it reduces.
This is even more worrying. Can OVSI really replace medical ventilator?
Of course, even if it can only solve the urgent needs, the innovations of these scientists are rare and useful.
Go to Africa in May to "save" the next "epicenter"
In any case, the Axel Zeitler team is realizing the original idea step by step.
"We have noticed reports that there is a serious shortage of ventilators on the African continent. It is reported that some countries only have dozens of such devices, while others have none. The ventilator is too expensive, and we need a low-cost solution. " In an interview with the media, Axel Zeitler at the other end of the lens mentioned the original intention of designing OVSI.
When dengue fever, Ebola, malaria and cholera are mentioned in Africa, apart from natural scenery, the names of infectious diseases may come to mind first.
In fact, except for a few countries such as South Africa, the sanitary conditions in most parts of Africa are extremely poor, and the medical conditions cannot meet the needs of disease prevention and treatment. According to WHO's earlier statistics, sub-Saharan Africa is facing a huge shortage of health manpower. These areas account for 25% of the global disease burden, but health workers only account for 3% of the world.
At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, some people wondered why Africa had become a pure land. Now the data tells us that things are not so simple. Up to now, the number of confirmed cases in COVID-19 on the African continent has increased to 27,852, with a growth rate of 62.5% last week.
You know, these cases are obviously underreported when the detection ability can't keep up.
A few days ago, WHO even warned that within three to six months, there may be 654.38+0 billion confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa, which may lead to more than 300,000 African deaths and 30 million people falling into extreme poverty. It is conceivable that the limited medical conditions in Africa will face many tests.
Among them, the shortage of ventilators used to treat moderate and severe COVID-19 patients has brought great troubles to developed countries in Europe and America. For most low-and middle-income countries in Africa and other regions, they have neither research and development capabilities nor high purchase prices. WHO estimates that there are less than 2,000 ventilators in 465,438+0 countries in Africa.
For these countries, the birth of OVSI is obviously good news. Now, the approval and production of this ventilator with a cost of less than $65,438+0,000 have been put on the agenda.
It is reported that the first batch of OVSI will be produced by Defy, a well-known home appliance company in South Africa, and Denel, a state-owned military enterprise. It is estimated that the output will reach 5000 units after the full production in June. Prior to this, the team will give priority to the emergency certification of FDA in the United States and the relevant certification process in the country where the manufacturer is located.
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