A New Hope: Engineers in Medellín Create Low-Cost Ventilators Replicable Worldwide

The Wall Street Journal published an article last week highlighting different projects in Latin America focused on creating low-cost ventilators for critical COVID-19 patients. Not to my surprise, three TEAM International employees participated in one which was developed in Medellin, Colombia, where one of our delivery centers is located. They collaborated in the creation of the software for the tablet attached to the ventilators which allows intensivist doctors to view the patient’s status. Continue reading to learn more about how this project can change the course of the disease and how TEAM’s top talent got involved.

Edgar Aguirre, one of our Delivery Managers, was reading excessively, like most of us have, about COVID-19 and its violent spread. Most of the news he read was utterly disappointing, a vaccine would take at least 18 months, as many as 1.7 million people could die in the United States alone and apparently, the only thing he could do to help was stay at home and follow the hygiene protocols. Until he bumped into a Facebook post on a group for entrepreneurs. Diego Pérez, a Biomedical Engineer from the University of Antioquia, who is leading the project, was desperately looking for an experienced software developer that could help him with the creation of a mobile app for a low-cost ventilator which was already in the prototype stage and could save the lives of thousands of Colombians.

The next day they began defining the technical requirements for the app that would manage the ventilator’s controls and Aguirre had found his glimmer of hope.

The Ventilator Project:

A Biomedical Engineering group of researchers at the University of Antioquia in Medellin was well aware that the COVID-19 crisis would hit Colombia hard. The statistics weren’t positive at all, estimates said that at least 4 million people in the country would be infected if the contagion rate remained at 2,68%, of those, around 560,000 would get to a critical condition and 190,000 would need a ventilator. In a country that only has 5,300 fully equipped Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds, of which there are only 2,600 available, this wasn’t good news at all. The government committed to adjusting 3,200 beds in order to fit the needs of acute patients, but still, there weren’t enough for the predicted cases. This is not only a problem in Colombia, the Society of Critical Care Medicine of the United States projects that 960,000 patients may need to be put on ventilators during the outbreak but there are only about 200,000 machines nationwide.

As if the scarcity of ventilators wasn’t problematic enough, their cost in Colombia is extremely high at $80 million pesos (around $27,000 dollars) per machine, a price the government simply cannot afford to pay. The Bioinstrumentation and Clinical Engineering Research Group (GIBC in Spanish) understood perfectly their objective: to create a machine that could perform the same basic functions as a ventilator, introduce oxygen into the lungs, remove carbon dioxide and adjust the breathing frequency at a very low price and particularly that it could be replicated worldwide. It was clear to them that this device wouldn’t be used to replace traditional, highly sophisticated ventilators, instead, it would be a kind of a “war ventilator” that would help control the emergency.

They knew that it was impossible to tackle this challenge on their own, so they created alliances with Ruta N, Medellín’s most important innovation institute, EIA, a private university, and San Pedro Medical Institution. The private sector also pitched in, Postobón, one of the country’s largest beverage producers donated $9,000 million pesos (over $2 million dollars), Haceb, a home appliances manufacturer and Sofasa, an auto assembly company, volunteered and prepared their factories for the mass production of the ventilators once INVIMA, Colombia’s FDA approved them.

The University of Antioquia, EIA, and San Pedro Medical Institution created a prototype each and decided to compare the three. They were completed in only 10 days. Ventilators have a big challenge, they have to operate in an extremely reliable way. If they fail to do so, it is highly likely that the patient will die. They vowed to invest their joint efforts into the best one and arrived at the final prototype in just one month, a historical feat in the country’s Biomedical and Technological industries. Once it was ready, they performed tests on a patient simulator, and later on live beings (animals), both proved to be successful.

Usually, to ensure a ventilator’s safety extensive testing is required for up to 2 years, but given the circumstances, the team figured out a way to fulfill all international protocols for these devices in a short amount of time. We’re still awaiting tests on humans, if all goes well and they’re approved by INVIMA, mass production will begin from early to mid May, when Colombia is expected to reach its contagion peak. The plan is to start with 1,500 ventilators which will be elaborated 100% with local raw materials in different production facilities around Medellin.

TEAM Talent Involvement

Aguirre was very excited to start work on this life-saving project, so he invested all that enthusiasm into exhaustive research on different topics. First, he had to familiarize himself with the technical aspects of Biomedicine and Bioengineering and learn how an actual ventilator worked. On a more technical level, he had to understand what kind of data was used, on what scale should it be graphed, what expectations did intensivist doctors have for the interphase, and take account restrictions on ICUs like no internet access.

After he set up a roadmap for the development of the mobile app, he knew it was time to set up a team for the challenge. He called TEAM coworkers Jason Arango, a proficient web developer who also knew about UX/UI design, as well as Juan Bejarano for his deep academic knowledge and experience with IoT projects. They started on March 19th, all of them had day jobs so the only time available was on restless nights and weekends. For four weeks straight Aguirre, Arango, and Bejarano worked nonstop in order to deliver the first part of the software on April 10.

Right: The diagram Aguirre initially created for the ventilator software

“The architecture is fairly simple; we created a server in Node JS that receives sets of data through a port in the device. When it receives the data it is stored locally so that it can be reviewed later, then it is analyzed to activate alarms the microcontroller sends, for example, low pressure, abnormal temperature, etc”, Aguirre tells me. The team claims that their biggest challenge in creating this system was the urgency of it all. The Colombian government has been focused 100% on buying time for the health sector to improve hospital infrastructure and avoid further contagion. They had only two weeks to create the first iteration and make changes so that it could go to patient simulation trials. The software was delivered accurately and on time.

Our TEAM members are very happy to be part of a project which will most likely save thousands of lives, but has also changed forever the course of Colombian innovation and engineering, Aguirre’s main lesson is simple yet powerful, “[the project] proves that extreme crisis bring upon us extreme and creative solutions.” This device won’t replace a traditional ventilator, it is the last resort we have to help infected patients and the focus must continue to be on preventing contagion, but still, it gives us the thing we need the most during these times: hope. 

As usual, I'd like to remind you that messages are always open if you want to discuss this specific topic or any other. Also, if you’d like us to set up a virtual coffee date, I'd be more than happy to meet you. For more interesting content head over to our company blog.

Wishing you plenty of health, safety, and especially hope!