Homegrown ventilator goes on clinical testing in a few days
The Military Institute of Science and Technology (MIST), an engineering university run by the Bangladesh MILITARY, has designed a ventilator, in the most positive development for the country panicking from the coronavirus pandemic.
Ventilators blow oxygen in to the lungs of patients experiencing severe pulmonary stress and so are needed for saving the lives of the sickest COVID-19 patients. And Bangladesh, a nation greater than 16 crore, has only one 1,250 ventilators.
MIST has received the documentation of the look of the ventilator from a body of the World Health Organisation and is scheduled to go for a clinical testing from April 4 at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka.
Syed Mahfuzur Rahman, head of biomedical engineering department of MIST, shared the development throughout a virtual press conference organised by Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for the ICT division.
In another development, Bangladesh yesterday received the patent, design and source code of the PB 560 model ventilator of Medtronic, a worldwide medical device manufacturer, Palak said.
The government plans to choose local manufacturing of the highly technical medical equipment that are desperately in short supply worldwide.
MIST will choose stimulation from today, Rahman told The Daily Star following the media briefing.
"We are maintaining very close connection with the ICU department of the CMH and after completion of the simulation we will choose clinical testing."
And if any suggestion originates from the ICU team, those will be accommodated before deciding on the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
MIST informed the DGHS about the development. The state agency has assured the university of all types of support to expedite approval from local and international bodies, he added.
Local technology company Walton is also maintaining connection with MIST. If the ventilator design gets approval, Walton begins manufacturing it.
"We've already suggested Walton to began to focus on hardware assembling in fact it is doing its part," Rahman added.
Meanwhile, ICT Division will sit today with the study and development team of Medtronic's Hyderabad office. Interested local technology companies may also attend the meeting, Palak said.
"We are not sure how long it will take to build up ventilators in the country, but once the first device is manufactured, the procedure will be easier and bulk manufacturing will start."
It might take a couple weeks to complete the complete process and the price will be lower compared to the imported ones, he said.
To be able to manufacture, Medtronic's technological support will be needed at least for the first batch of products since it will not be possible for the local talent to create them by only following source code and design.
Walton has showed interest in manufacturing the Medtronic ventilators, too. Various other local technology companies are also keen to become listed on in your time and effort, Palak added.
If the neighborhood technology companies can manufacture these devices, its price will be within Tk 2 lakh, said an official of the ICT Division.
It costs at least Tk 7 lakh if these devices is imported from China and Tk 18 lakh to Tk 20 lakh if it originates from Europe.
Walton is preparing to go for the manufacturing of these devices and would be happy to produce it for local patients, said Liakat Ali, ceo of the group's computer division, while attending the video-conferencing.
Even if Bangladesh does not get the expected success from the initiative, it'll provide a huge boost to the country's technological sector and help them do better in the coming days, said Anir Chowdhury, policy adviser of the Usage of Information (a2i) project under the ICT Division.
Medtronic is sharing design specifications for a basic ventilator model with any business that really wants to help produce them for hospitals racing to treat coronavirus patients.
The Dublin-based company on Monday posted specifications because of its PB 560 ventilator "to permit participants across industries to judge options for rapid ventilator manufacturing to greatly help doctors and patients working with COVID-19".
Software and other information for the compact model, in the marketplace since 2010 and sold in 35 countries, will also be added for download soon, Medtronic said.
American electric vehicle and clean energy company Tesla has adopted on this opportunity: it would be manufacturing the model in its solar power production facility.
