By Eleanor Gee

A low-cost emergency care ventilator that can be used in local hospitals to assist with the COVID-19 pandemic, has been developed by engineering students and staff at the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Fiji.

Ventilators, normally priced between FJD$50,000 - $100,000, are used to support critically ill COVID-19 patients by forcing high oxygen content air into their lungs, under the direct supervision of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) medical staff.

USP Senior Fellow in Mechanical Engineering, Dr Michael Wood said with the help of the Fijian Ministry of Health and Medical Services, the team set out to design and build a low-cost emergency ventilator that would not only aid during a COVID-19 outbreak, but could also be used in other emergencies. 

The USP engineering team for the ventilator project comprised of four smaller teams, including Design, Procurement, Construction, and Controls, working under the guidance of the USP Engineering staff and postgraduate students. 

Design

The ventilator is designed to survive extreme treatment and harsh environments. The exterior casing is made of welded stainless-steel plate with both sides being ventilated by extraction fans. 

In-house coding was developed to control the emergency ventilator and interface with motion limiting and pressure sensors to ensure no risk to patients. 

Dr Wood stated that the design stage the team ensured that the appropriate international medical equipment standards were followed so that the final product would be suitable for use in any hospital in any country.

“The operator can control breaths per min (BPM), tidal volume (TV– the volume of air forced into the lung), the ratio between inhalation and exhalation (I/E Ratio), and the positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) – using a pressure sensor, the ventilator can detect when a patient has sufficiently recovered to commence continuous spontaneous breathing and the ventilator can be switched off automatically,” he said.

Challenges

The team faced numerous challenges when producing the machine.

“A major challenge was procuring electronic components from overseas during the COVID-19 outbreak,” said Dr Wood. “The teams used several strategies to manage the project efficiently to ensure we had all the parts we needed.”

“Another hurdle faced by the teams was the precision manufacturing required for such products but even with limited manufacturing tools, the team was able to manufacture all mechanical parts. This was done mostly in-house and, where not possible, fabrication was outsourced to local engineering shops.” 

USP Electrical/Electronic Engineering Professor, Maurizio Cirrincione said the realisation of this prototype can make ventilators available at a lower price than those in the market.

"This work is good evidence of the level of mechanical and electrical/electronic engineers in USP, which boasts of both programmes accredited by the Engineering New Zealand within the prestigious Washington Accord, the most important international accreditation agreement for undergraduate professional engineering academic degrees, between the bodies responsible for accreditation, across the world."

The team is continuing to perform reliability and safety tests on the USP-AUF Ventilator to improve its operation and make it available when deemed safe to do so. 

The ventilator project was funded by the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF), one of the largest university networks in the world with 1007 members in 119 countries.