Design and Implementation of a Mechanical Ventilator

Africa’s healthcare system is challenged by inadequate medical equipment, stemming from the fact that it does not manufacture its own medical devices but depends mostly on used medical equipment donations, many of which do not function and require extensive repairs. The World Health Organization estimates that 50 to 80 percent of medical equipment in developing countries are not working, therefore creating a barrier in the health system delivery of health services.  Mechanical ventilators are machines designed to assist the body to perform certain complex activities to move air into and out of the lungs. In Africa, there are few trained ventilator specialists, who are experienced at using and restoring, often times, donations of this machines are abandoned, only to be later disposed of. This glaring lack of adequate medical resources including short supply of ventilators is alarming and makes the fight of COVID-19 outbreak, by developing countries almost an impossible task. RO 

COVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria is just one of Africa’s alarming hot spots. A mechanical ventilator manufactured in Nigeria would not only provide to the populace crucial equipment for fighting the disease, but also enable training of workforce and transfer of skills to students in academia, for gainful employment in the healthcare industry. It would ultimately result in closure of skill gap in mechanical ventilation, while shrinking the unemployment statistics. 

Africa’s scramble to rectify the shortage of ventilators in medical institutions would be addressed through affordable ventilators that are manufactured locally. This is crucial for the fight against acute respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 and lower respiratory diseases like pneumonia, asthma which are prevalent in Africa. We propose to setup a manufacturing facility at the University of Jos (UNIJOS) led by the Department of Pharmacology to build, test, and evaluate prototypes of this device in a sample of hospitals, and obtain regulatory approval in Nigeria for use in clinical settings. The design is currently in the conceptual stage and for further refinement, prototyping, medical approval and large-scale manufacturing. The proposed device is portable, compact low weight and efficient performer with low power consumption. It can be supplied around the rural area hospitals for immediate application with cost efficiency and risk avoidance. It can be operated by any individual as special training is not required and can be repaired at no cost. 

All but the most rudimentary maintenance of ventilators is now the responsibility of specially trained biomedical engineers. Our approach to describing ventilator design has thus changed from a focus on individual components to a more generalized model of a ventilator as a device for which we supply an input and expect a certain output. 

The knowledge gap that exist between manufacturers and end users depends on the knowledge of rather simple analytical models of ventilators, patient interaction and control schemes. The need for a mechanical ventilation is a common feature of the patient requiring admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). The goal will be to try to identify the changes in clinical medicine that promoted refinement of the mechanical ventilator. The concept of a slider-crank mechanism with variable drive frequency utilized in conjunction with manual resuscitation bags (e.g. AMBU bags) to provide a control volume displacement and ventilation frequency will be verified.