Portable Ventilator

Project Title

Portable Ventilator

Project Area of Specialization Biomedical EngineeringProject Summary

Failure of respiratory organs caused by different disorders and injuries is a source of great stress in developing and semi developed countries. Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease prove to be a source for these failures in these countries. In case of a medical emergency, the risks involved in the movement of such patients to suitable health care centers, further add to the trauma caused by the whole situation. Mechanical ventilation is required for patients fighting with such conditions to avoid failure of lungs while in movement. Our proposed prototype will aid patients by providing artificial oxygen enriched air to survive. Most of the hospital-grade ventilators already in use are very high in cost and low in number. Developing countries seem unable to acquire such live-saving devices for their communities at large. Apart from their higher cost, their maintenance also proves to be burdensome.  Another dilemma related to developing countries is the saturation of basic resources to only urban areas. In distant and deprived areas such kind of facilities are still missing, and as a result there is lag of such ventilators in these outlying regions.

Based upon these circumstances it is important to have a low cost, easily attainable and efficient Portable Ventilator. The problem discussed is also true for our country Pakistan. Statistics clearly show that there is a shortage of ventilators in almost all hospitals and regions of Pakistan. According to [1], the total number of available ventilators is 1650 for a population of 212.8 million. As discussed earlier major reason of this shortage is the high cost of currently available ventilators in the market. The availability of portable ventilators to provide urgent care to patients during transport is close to none. The high concentration and rapid increase in lung diseases caused by COVID-19 has worsened the situation. We aim to bridge this huge gap by developing a prototype for a low-cost and efficient portable ventilator.

Project Objectives

Pakistan is a developing country with a population of over 220 million and the main cause of deaths for COVID-19 patients is the lack of proper medical assistance including respiratory devices. The ratio of deaths is very high. In order to tackle this serious threat, we propose to develop a working prototype of Portable Ventilator to assist with the shortage of ventilators in hospitals of  Pakistan.

The main objectives of this project are;

• To provide accurate detection of disease and analysis of a patient in real-time.
• To provide instantaneous monitoring of the patient’s breathing activity in rural areas and during emegercy commuting of patient to hospitals.
• To provide a reliable, cost-effective, practical and efficient portable ventilator that can be easily moved from one place to another.

To provide improved disease management for satisfactory patient experience.

Project Implementation Method

According to state-of-the-art research, the two most used portable ventilator designs are as follows:

Bellow-based design: A plastic chamber is used to house bellows that serve as reservoir bags for the breathing circuit. The patient gas circuit resides inside these bellows whereas the driving gas circuit lies outside them. So, these bellows serve as an interface between the gas for the breathing system and the ventilator driving gas.

Piston-based design: In these ventilators, an electric motor is used to compress the gas in the breathing circuit. The force of the motor compresses the gas inside the piston because of which a pressure is caused to push the gas into the patient’s lungs.

A comprehensive study will be conducted to down select the design type based on cost, effectiveness, and feasibility to be developed in Pakistan.

A pressure measurement unit responsible to monitor the air pressure between the supply chain of the hospital or the ambulance will be 

developed using sensors, transducer, and a gain amplifier to maintain the system’s output signal. A circuit required to monitor the flow of the mixture of air and oxygen to the patient will also be developed based on the short-listed ventilator design. To control the pressure, a pneumatic block will be designed using control valves, gas cylinder, pressure regulators and filters. In case of a gas failure, the same unit can serve as a pressured gas reservoir.  A complete power architecture design will be developed to make the design power efficient and capable of functioning on a battery.

Once all the sub-circuits are designed and fabricated, the final assembly of the design will be conducted. Additionally, an LCD panel will be used for the display of the required data for the medical specialists. Remote data monitoring capability is also one of the features to be added to the design to ensure feedback from the medical professionals available in the hospitals to assist the medical staff present in the ambulance.

Furthermore, three control modes for pressure, volume and assist control will be implemented to make the design feature rich for patient assistance.

Benefits of the Project

This project will provide a state of the art, easy-to-use device for diagnosing and monitoring the patient’s breathing through a portable ventilator and will serve as an assisting tool for respiratory system all over Pakistan. Moreover, the lack of availability of portable ventilators during the travel time for patients living in the rural areas and the care providers will be eliminated as the device is designed to monitor the patient’s breathing condition during transport.

The designed biomedical device will be in high demand as the respiratory diseases in the COVID-19 are the major cause of deaths in Pakistan and all over the world and many medical institutes will be looking to acquire this device in their facilities.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The final deliverables are both Hardware and Software.

 A. Hardware deliverables:  

  1. Pressure Sensor  

  2. Flow Sensor  

  3. 3.2 inch IPS TFT LCD display 480x320

  4. Solenoid valve

  5. Microcontroller

  6. Digital Pressure gauge   

B. Software:    

1. Firmware in Microcontrollers

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry MedicalOther IndustriesCore Technology OthersOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for PeopleRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	158748
Arduino Mega	Equipment	3	1500	4500
Arduino Mega Proto Shield	Equipment	3	350	1050
3.2 inch IPS TFT LCD display 480x320	Equipment	2	1200	2400
7 inch FT LCD module for Arduino Mega	Equipment	2	10500	21000
Pressure sensor module MPXV7002DP	Equipment	2	2500	5000
Winson Micro Flow sensor F1031	Equipment	2	11212	22424
Digital Pressure gauge	Equipment	2	1500	3000
Solenoid valve	Equipment	2	5000	10000
Miscellaneous	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000
Arduino Mega	Equipment	3	1500	4500
Arduino Mega Proto Shield	Equipment	3	350	1050
3.2 inch IPS TFT LCD display 480x320	Equipment	2	1200	2400
7 inch FT LCD module for Arduino Mega	Equipment	2	10500	21000
Pressure sensor module MPXV7002DP	Equipment	2	2500	5000
Winson Micro Flow sensor F1031	Equipment	2	11212	22424
Digital Pressure gauge	Equipment	2	1500	3000
Solenoid valve	Equipment	2	5000	10000
Miscellaneous	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000