In early summer 2020 AIT – Angewandte Informationstechnik Forschungsgesellschaft mbH together with the Centre for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna started a collaborative science project to develop an operational, low-cost ventilator, preferably for use in the intensive care treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The project received support within the framework of the 2020 FFG-Emergency-Calls-Covid-19.
The current version of our operational, low-cost ventilator is Spiritum 1.0. It is an easy reproducable ventilator that may also be used for education and training in order to avoid shortage of skilled personnel.
Why DIY and Training?
When looking at many developing countries, the majority of the population uses the professional public health system. But most medical equipment in public hospitals is imported, which often leads to obstacles in the introduction and dissemination of medical equipment: In most cases, the imported equipment no longer works after a few years because spare parts would have to be replaced (and are no longer produced, or difficult to order) or because there is a lack of training, manuals and accessories.
However, the lack of spare parts is by far not the biggest obstacle, but the lack of trained personnel with technical knowledge and technical instructions is in fact the main reason why repair and maintenance of technical equipment is sometimes not carried out. Thus, the development of medical devices that can be used all over the world must take the following into account: Avoid use of disposable parts, have in mind the reduced availability of electricity, reduce maintenance effort, and provide easy and straightforward specialised training and services.