Our partner, Riverdi, just joined forces with OpenBreath, in a project which aims to counter the health emergency caused by COVID-19.
They started this collaboration in the middle of March this year when there was an ever-present feeling of urgency to do something concrete to help the Italian healthcare system.
In particular, the lack of mechanical ventilators in intensive care units pushed the Riverdi team to put their engineering skills to work and try to design a rapidly manufacturable, low-cost and open-source lung ventilator that could give immediate relief to the hospitals in Italy and abroad.
The OpenBreath ventilation device intends to meet two needs:
- construction simplicity
- speed of realization
Cutting costs of medical equipment
While this low-cost lung ventilator was in the development phase, the Riverdi team realized that its application could go much beyond western countries facing the current health emergency. In fact, there are many countries around the world where the lack of medical devices is endemic. The reason is generally that electrical medical devices are extremely expensive and not affordable for many less-developed countries.
Of course, this means that the OpenBreath ventilator could represent a solution to a wider problem than the current COVID-19 emergency. Ideally, they envision this device to be distributed to poorer healthcare systems that cannot afford traditional ventilators.
More about OpenBreath
OpenBreath is an open-source project, designed to counter the health emergency caused by COVID-19 in the world. All the project material will be made freely available through their website and through scientific material exchange platforms, such as GitHub.
