Invention Coach:
Ben Coombs
Public Inventor(s):
Darío Hereñú
Main Link:
Motivation:
To create a scalable, open source oxygen concentrator for medical therapies in rugged environments.
Story:
Medical grade oxygen is an essential component of respiratory therapy. Typically this is provided by industrial scale cryogenic oxygen concentrators. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the existing need for medical oxygen in field hospital settings around the world. These settings create a variety of challenges that need to be overcome to deliver oxygen to communities around the world.
Human resources are be limited both medically and technically. Medical staff communicate in a variety of local languages and may have little experience. Staff to patient ratios are much higher than is acceptable in a fully equipped hospital. Technical support staff face challenges such as lack of training and basic maintenance equipment.
Field hospital settings may be urban or rural. Environments such as high temperatures, high humidity and fine dust particles create engineering challenges.
Infrastructure and logistics create additional challenges. This is raised the requirement to design a device that can be manufactured locally, along with sufficient documentation to present to local regulatory authorities. Medical device standards must be met and this project aims to meet regulatory requirements.
Download the PIOC presentation from PubInvCon 2021!
Many thanks to Project Apollo, Helpful Engineering and EnAccess OpenO2 for their ongoing collaboration.
Status:
Skills Needed
Volunteers are needed for this project! Please contact Public Invention if you are interested in joining. Currently we are looking for electrical, mechanical and software engineers.
Quarterly Goals
- Demonstrate a functioning system with a dryer
- Do a long duration test of oxygen production
- Compare to the M19 project and decide next steps.
Photo Gallery
