SAVING LIVES
THE MADE-IN-IISc - PRAANA VENTILATOR
“Discover and Innovate; Transform and Transcend; Serve and Lead” is the new motto of India’s premier research Institute, the Indian Institute of Science, IISc, Bangalore, which turned 111 on the 27th of May 2020. IISc, popularly called the TATA Institute by locals, was founded on May 27, 1909.
With the world in the middle of the Coronavirus-Covid-19 pandemic,
Saving
Lives has become the primary aim of Governments and Medical Professionals
the world over. India with its large population is investing huge resources to
fight this scourge.
Leading from the front is India’s Premier Research Institute,
The
Indian Institute of Science, IISc, Bangalore, where a group of
scientists, under the Project appropriately named “PRAANA”, have
successfully completed the prototype of an indigenously developed, “MADE-IN-IISc,
ICU Grade Ventilator”.
Project
PRAANA was started by IISc faculty members Professors, Gaurab Banerjee, Duvvuri
Subrahmanyam, and Pratikash Panda, Aerospace Engineering (AE) Department; T .V. Prabhakar and retired Professor H. S.
Jamadagni – Department of Electronic Systems Engineering (DESE), along with Bangalore-based
engineer Manas Pradhan. On board were Medical Professionals – Dr. Supreet
Khare, Dr. Sriram Sampath and Dr. Krishna Prasad.
In an email interview, Professors Duvvuri Subrahmanyam and Pratikash Panda, take us through the exciting moments that eventually led to the development of the State-of-the-art, Made-in-IISc, ICU Grade Ventilator.
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Question: First, Congratulations to
you and every member of the Praana Team for the successful Research and
development (R & D) of the Made-In-IISc Prototype Ventilator.
Answer: Thank you for your wishes!
Question: How did Praana come about: The Name; The Team and the Concept?
Answer: Praana is a Sanskrit word for breath and the Project was appropriately named as “Praana” by Prof. Gaurab Banerjee (co-founder of Project Praana). The Praana core team came together during the last week of March with a clear objective to develop an indigenously built technology that could support the Indian healthcare system during the Covid 19 crisis.
Question: What were your core strengths and what was your goal?
Answer: Our team combines
expertise from different areas of engineering and medical sciences – we have
Aerospace, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineers, as well as a group of
practicing doctors that provided timely inputs to our work. None of the
engineers on the team had specific background in biomedical or medical device
engineering. However, we were able to build quickly on our basic understanding
of a ventilator function and requirements, and then innovate to meet our
project goals. Our previous research experience in our own areas of expertise
of course helped us in identifying and solving problems quickly!
Question(s): Did the team visit Hospitals to see existing ventilators?
Were Doctors on board to help/guide
the project and give their inputs?
Answer: Our team did not visit any hospital, but we were in constant touch with some of the top Doctors in the country. We were closely interacting with them through phone/ video conferences to get their inputs. I personally have never worked on medical devices and ventilator is supposed to be one of the most critical medical device, so it was very important for us to understand the critical control parameters in an ICU grade ventilator, which was possible through our interactions with the doctors.
Question: How did funding come about?
Answer:
IISc supported the initial phase of the project and later we were supported by
the CSR funding of SBI foundation with the help from Principal Scientific
Advisory Govt. of India.
Question: Sensors/Hardware/Software, how did Team Praana put this all together? How much of the Ventilator is MADE IN INDIA?
Answer:
Once we finalized our concept, we knew exactly how the pneumatics should be
designed and the sensors that will be needed. Most the existing
Ventilators use expensive flow controller and proportional control valves but
since we did not want to use those expensive units, we had to innovate our own design.
Except
for the microprocessor unit and the Analog-To-Digital (ADC) card, everything
else is “Made in India”. However, both the microprocessor and ADC card are very
easily available in the local Indian supply chain.
Going
forward, we have been approached by various Indian Manufacturers who have
offered to make custom designed components for us if such a need arose.
Question: Does the Ventilator meet National/International Medical Standards?
Answer: We have followed some of the guidelines specified in the “Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator Systems” issued by the Medical and Healthcare product regulatory agency (MHRA) of UK. Now that we have demonstrated the prototype, in the next phase every component, sub-system and the entire device will go through the various certifications and field-testing to be compliant with National and International Medical Standards.
Question: From conceptualization to the Prototype how long, did the project take?
Answer:
The project roughly took 2 months from conceptualization to realize the
prototype.
Question: Has Indian Industry come forward to take the prototype into commercialization and if Yes, how much do you think it would eventually cost?
Answer: We are currently in discussion with some of the industries who are genuinely interested in taking this technology to final product phase. We anticipate that the price of the final optimized product could be in the range of 1.5 – 2 lakhs. As we move forward, the prototype ventilator will not just be a stopgap arrangement for the Covid-19 situation; it can eventually be used by hospitals on a full time basis beyond the Covid-19 Crisis.
Question: Whom would you and your team like to thank for helping you all put this Life Saving Medical Instrument together?
Answer: We would like to thank all the volunteers and active members of Team Praana, the continuous support from the IISc administration. Prof. K Vijayaraghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. Narayana Health, Fluke and TSI for lending us the devices to verify the performance of our device and the funding support from SBI Foundation.
Question: Would Team Praana be looking
for feedback and eventual tweaking/upgrading the Ventilator based on actual
use?
Answer: Yes, in fact, we are now open to any feedback or further inputs from the doctors and medical device experts so that we further improvise the ventilator and move from prototype to the final product.
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