(Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati) – With 7,706,946 confirmed cases and 116,653 deaths, India has become the second country in the world, after the United States, to be most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This growing emergency has resulted in skyrocketing demand for pulmonary ventilators. Thus, Dr. Bobby Sharma, of “Assam Don Bosco University“, based in Guwahati, Assam State, took up the challenge and designed an internationally recognized, low-cost, easy-to-use and easy-to-build mechanical ventilator able to facilitate invasive, non-invasive, and CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) ventilator regulation.
Using a particular integrated control panel, this device allows the doctor to control all the necessary parameters, including airflow pressure, minute volume, and oxygen concentration. Auxiliary equipment related to the inspiratory/expiratory functions, such as airway hoses, can be connected to the machinery through two universal connection ports.
Unlike most existing ventilators, this device can integrate compressed-air oxygen with oxygen extracted directly from the surrounding environment. Based on the “pressure vacuum swing absorption technique” (PVSA), this device can convert ambient air into a gas mixture, composed of 88-92% oxygen by extracting and removing nitrogen; in other words, it can provide care simply via ambient air enrichment.
The innovative ventilator designed by the professor of the Salesian University was selected to participate in the competition organized by the “Montreal General Hospital Foundation” and by the Research Institute of the “McGill University Health Center“, in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Sharma’s creation was ranked among the 65 best ventilators in the world out of 2,639 participants, 1,029 teams and 94 countries competing.
Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU) is an initiative of the Salesians of the Guwahati Province, inaugurated in 2008. Winner of the “University of the Year for Excellence in Commitment and Entrepreneurship for 2020 – Asia Pacific” Award and considered, in 2018, “University of the Year” among Indian universities existing for 1-10 years, ADBU has earned a place of honor among Indian universities for having managed in this time of pandemic, to adapt all the teaching, tests and exams in online mode, seamlessly.
“We have succeeded thanks to the dedication of our Faculty and our staff in putting our students’ interests first … And we have been supported in our efforts by our experience in distance education developed over the last ten years,”
– Fr Stephen Mavely, Rector of the University
Source: Agenzia iNfo Salesiana