ITB Alumni’s Presentation About the Downstream Policy Research on Ventilators in Indonesia
BANDUNG, itb.ac,id – The alumni of the ITB Physics Study Program Dr. Pratondo Busono- Head Researcher of the Electromedicine Laboratory at the Electronics and Telecommunication Research Center at the National Research and Innovation Agency- explained his research on the automatic emergency ventilator resuscitator for the treatment of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
Dr. Pratondo’s webinar titled “Knowledge-Sharing by the Engineering Physics Vocational Association from the Institute of Engineers Indonesia” presented the underlying problems in the current ventilators that encourage its innovation. “The main issue here is that 90% of local medical devices are imported due to our country's inability to make them high-quality,” he stated.
To manage the surging demands of ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, BPPT teamed up with PT LEN Industry and PT Poly Jaya Medical to devise emergency ventilators based on the design of automatic resuscitators.
Ventilators provide mechanical ventilation by delivering air in and out of the lungs, supplying air exchange to patients who are unable to physically breathe or suffer from short breaths. The emergency ventilators aforementioned use volume-controlled ventilation mode and are named DHARCOV23S, #BPPT3S-LEN and #BPPT3S-POLY.
Dr. Pratondo then described the early phase of the emergency ventilators' development. “The primary objective of this project is to produce ventilators that are easy and quick to assemble with components that are accessible in our country,” he added. “Its effective production period starts in 3 weeks before March.”
Stages in its production comprise of the following: design selection, prototype construction, self-examinations of the prototypes, industrial manufacture for clinical trials, discussions with health workers, product calibration, BFFK product testing, clinical trial request to the Ministry of Health, pre-marketing clinical trials in hospitals, marketing permit applications, commercial production, and post-marketing clinical trials in hospitals.
To ensure patients’ safety, the ventilators are built based on the AAMI, MHRA, and BPFK specifications. Moreover, they passed the product-testing procedure by BPFK in terms of performance, safety, and reliability. Receiving authorization for commercialization from the Ministry, the ventilators are currently available and operated at several hospitals in Indonesia.
Reporter: Yoel Enrico Meiliano (Teknik Pangan, 2020)
Translator: Ruth Nathania (Teknik Lingkungan, 2019)
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