IIT-Kanpur

BENGALURU: A team of IIT-Kanpur researchers-turned entrepreneurs has readied a 'working prototype' of a low-cost invasive ventilator that can be mass-produced using components that are all available in India. It is designed specifically for Covid-19 patients.

Nikhil Kurele, Harshit Rathore, Tushar Agarwal and Abhishek Kulkarni of NOCCA Robotics, an incubation at IIT-Kanpur, developed the ventilator which will "soon be validated" by regulating agencies.

Critically-ill Covid-19 patients cannot breathe on their own and ventilators are critical for their survival. "Air has to be delivered right into the lungs, which requires a tube to be inserted. Our device is an invasive ventilator," Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, in-charge of innovation and incubation, IIT-Kanpur, told TOI.

The invasive mechanical ventilator does not require any form of 'medical air' as it is capable of operating on its own in ambient air. There's also a provision for attaching oxygen cylinders if required. The ventilator operates in 'pressure control' mode. "Inhalation can be patient-triggered or mechanical. The ventilator will operate in a timed cycle for all operating modes where time will be set by doctors," the team said.

In order to create the pressure, a diaphragm air pump is used in a closed loop using a sensor and microcontroller to maintain it at the required level. The ventilator has to be permanently connected to a mobile phone, which will control the device.

"We have an 'alpha prototype' that can be connected to an artificial lung easily, but that's only one quarter of our job. We have to get the design tested and get the mandatory trials done," Bandyopadhyay said.

The team "discussed the device" with a US group that helps in ventilator designs worldwide and also consulted experts at the University of California, Irvine and Dr Deepak Padmanabhan of Narayana Hrudayalaya in Bengaluru.

