Professor Liliana Galindo (Department of Psychiatry) is working with a team from Universities, private sector and public sector institutions in Colombia towards the delivery of InnspiraMED – a ventilator created by Professor Mauricio Toro (Universidad de Antioquia) that, being low-cost and open-source, having the potential to be mass-produced and relying on mechanical ventilation, can be used for COVID-19 patients in remote areas of the country that have no access to ICU. Following on from ongoing trials of InnspiraMED in animals, the team will be conducting a clinical non-randomized phase 2 trial to test the InnspiraMED ventilator and developing a virtual training programme for health workers based in hospitals in remote areas without ICUs. This project is led by members of a large community of 9,000 doctors developing resources to respond to COVID-19 in urban and rural areas of Colombia; other projects delivered by this community include, for example, a video prepared in collaboration with hospitals and renowned Colombian artists to communicate the importance of self-isolation.
Find further details about the InnspiraMED Open Source Mechanical Ventilators here, learn about the working group here and here and join the project at the #low-and-middle-income-countries Slack channel. Contact point: Professor Liliana Galindo (lg532@cam.ac.uk).