IIT Roorkee Develops Low-Cost Portable Ventilator 'Prana-Vayu' To Save Lives Amid COVID-19 Crisis

In a bid to fight the shortage of medical equipment caused due to the novel coronavirus crisis, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Roorkee has developed a low-cost portable ventilator that would help save lives of the infected patients.

The indigenous ventilator has been named Prana-Vayu and has been developed in collaboration with All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Rishikesh.

The closed-loop ventilator does not require compressed air and is useful especially during the coronavirus pandemic when hospital wards and open areas are converted into ICUs.

The research team from IIT Roorkee included Professor Akshay Dvivedi and Professor Arup Kumar Das with online support from Dr Debendra Tripathi from AIIMS Rishikesh.

The ventilator is based on the controlled operation of the prime mover which ensures delivery of the required amount of air to the patient. The automated process controls the pressure and flow rates as the patient breathes in and out.

Additionally, the ventilator has a system that can control the tidal volume and breath per minute.

The ventilator will cost ₹25,000 per unit, reportedly much less than the products available in the market.

"Today, Prana-Vayu was presented to more than 450 industries representatives in a webinar organized by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). I am happy to share that we have received interest from multiple industries for its mass production. We are committed to augmenting the efforts of the government in tackling the pandemic," said Ajit K. Chaturvedi, Director, IIT-Roorkee, reported LiveMint.

"This low-cost ventilator will be highly useful for COVID-19 patients, especially when there is a shortage of ventilators," added Chaturvedi.

Prof. Akshay Dvivedi said that the ventilator that has been designed with a week by the team, has been developed especially to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. It is low-cost, safe, reliable, and can be quickly manufactured.

He further informed that the prototype has been tested successfully for normal and patient-specific breathing conditions, can be used for both infants and overweight adults.

It was only a week ago that the team started working on the design and by remote communication developed a prototype to help country's medical infrastructure tackle COVID-19.

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