Brazilian scientists create low-cost ventilators

A multidisciplinary team at the University of São Paulo’s (USP) Escola Politécnica designed an emergency low-cost ventilator that may help provide care for COVID-19 patients. Dubbed Inspire, its prototype has two advantages: it may be ready to use in less than two hours and components can be found in the country.

Ventilators available in the market cost approximately $2.8 thousand, whereas Inspire costs some $190. Its open-source model is pending authorization from Brazil’s sanitary authorities.

Professor Marcelo Knorich Zuffo, from Poli-USP, points out that the prototype was conceived to be used “under catastrophic conditions” stemming from a shortage in commercial ventilators. “Our project is an emergency ventilator,” he stressed. He coordinates the initiative alongside Professor Raúl Gonzalez Lima, who specializes in biomedical engineering, and works with a team of 40 people.

“We’re also contacting authorities in order to ascertain the exact circumstances in which the product must be used,” Zuffo went on to say.

The project is undergoing its final stages and also pending official authorization, as inspiration and expiration are being tested. The team is in contact with the federal government in order to forge partnerships for production in large scale. The last meeting was held Tuesday (Mar. 31), with representatives from the Ministry fo Science, Technology, and Innovation, as well as members of national sanitary body Anvisa.

Zuffo notes that the initiative was possible cause team member already had experience with the assemblage of industrial lung ventilators. “Since we had the know-how at the service of the university, we decided to create the means to make the professors’ knowledge available to society.” He also said the team was mobilized after they realized how dire the situation in other countries was. “We heard reports that ventilators are in short amounts in New York, so volunteers have to keep pressing the pump to keep patients alive during the night.”

The research coordinator noted that the team was surprised with the $30 thousand raised through an online campaign to support the project. The amount surpassed the expectations of the scientists, who were expected less than $4 thousand. “This shows we’re in a generous society, and we’re trying to respond to this generosity the most responsible and serious way possible, despite how serious the situation is,” he concluded.