The inventors designed a new, inexpensive ventilator for use in developing countries
A group of Newcastle-based inventors have received pro bono aid from Hall & Wilcox as they put together a design for a new, inexpensive ventilator to be used by developing countries battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was very fulfilling to work with Newcastle people who had developed this quite novel and pragmatic solution to an immediate problem of the global pandemic,” said Matthew Smith, a commercial and commercial partner at the firm’s Newcastle office.
Christened SparkVent, the ventilator was first conceptualised by anaesthetist Dr Hamish Meares, who in the early stages of the pandemic grasped the critical importance of ventilators in treatment. He quickly realised that because these devices require a lengthy lead time to manufacture, the supply would be unable to keep up with the heightened demand.
“Our aim was to make a simple, cheap ventilator that will hopefully get use well beyond the COVID-19 crisis,” Meares said. “It was crazy at the beginning. We are a small team, all volunteers, and we were just trying to move as fast as we could to design a ventilator that could potentially save lives.”
He began developing a prototype for SparkVent in March together with his friends who worked as mechanical engineers, industrial designers and mechanics. They received input from retired anaesthetist Dr Duncan Campbell, designer of the Campbell ventilator, who suggested a venturi design.
This type of design has just one moving part, which makes it a safer, cheaper option for developing countries. Thus, SparkVent costs only about $500, while a standard ventilator has a price tag of around $15,000.
“With a standard ventilator, you need fully functional biomedical departments to keep it running. Originally, I was concentrating on the patients who will end up in an ICU, but putting patients in an ICU bed in developing countries consumes a huge amount of resources,” Meares said. “There will be a larger group of patients that will be struggling to breathe but don’t need an ICU bed and they will be most helped by this ventilator.”
Meares shipped SparkVent to Pakistan earlier this month; the final design has been made available on open source so that developing countries can produce the ventilator for free. He also said that there were plans to bolster the manufacture of SparkVent units in Australia to meet the urgent needs of developing countries.
According to Smith, Hall & Wilcox helped the group of investors to establish a company for the venture and to apply for relevant charitable exemptions. The firm also offered IP guidance.
“It’s not often that you get the opportunity to donate your time to a project that could have a profound impact on saving lives in developing countries across the globe,” Smith said.
