IIT Ropar develops compact, affordable ventilation support for COVID-19 patients

IIT Ropar has developed compact ventilation support that can be easily operated and can be assembled with ease in remote areas, villages, or at home.

A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar has developed compact and affordable ventilation support to be used for less critical coronavirus infected patients. The design by IIT Ropar researchers is such that it can be easily operate and can be assembled with ease in remote areas, villages or at home. The Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BiPAP) machine is a mode of ventilation that can maintain positive pressure for air intake and low pressure for expiration.

The machine is made of readily available electronic and mechanical parts and a single unit can support multiple patients, provided the airflow is sufficient, the institute said in a statement. It can be used for less critical cases where patients do not require intubation by specialized staff.

Neha Sardana, from the department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering of IIT Ropar, along with Gaurav Pal Singh, a research scholar, developed the ventilation support, the institute said.

The machine will cost around Rs 6,500 per unit if produced in mass, the statement said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a massive challenge to healthcare services around the globe which requires innovative and immediate solutions. This BiPAP machine in the current situation aims to deliver an economical and user-friendly respiratory support for non-critical patients and a backup resource for hospitals facing ventilation shortage,” the institute said.

Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar is one of the eight new IITs set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India. It was founded in 2008 to offer both undergraduate and postgraduate courses across engineering, science and humanities' streams.

The institute was ranked 29 for engineering by NIRF in 2019. Internationally, IIT Ropar ranked at 25^th position in the QS India Rankings 2020.

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