Mohamed Amersi assists and advises the OxVent prototype ventilator collaboration

With the rapid spread of Covid-19 across the Globe, the UK Government called for support from non-health industries and universities to design and build ventilator supply to meet the forecast demand for 30,000 expected at the peak of the UK outbreak.

The OxVent collaboration comprises a multidisciplinary team of engineers and medics from the University of Oxford and King’s College London. Together, within two weeks, the team developed a low-cost prototype ventilator, usingcomponents which are readily available on the market or can be produced through 3D printing techniques, to avoid the risk of supply chain procurement delays.

The Chairman of the Foundation, Mohamed Amersi, offered strategic assistance and advice to the OxVent team to ensure delivery of a robust and scalable product, delivered at speed.

The OxVent prototype is not intended to replace existing ventilators, but rather to support patients during the disease’s most acute phase and provide an option for respiratory support to patients when hospitals run out of standard ventilators.

On the 2nd of April 2020, the OxVent prototype ventilator was shortlisted by the UK Government to go to the next stage of testing for safety and usability for their ventilator prototype. If the ventilator passes the required MHRA safety tests, it will rapidly move into production with the medical manufacturing company, Smith and Nephew (S&N) based in Hull.

The Covid-19 pandemic is catalysing collaboration across the scientific community at an unprecedented scale. The intention for OxVent is to manufacture 6,000 ventilators for deployment across the NHS and to reach beyond UK borders too.

The OxVent team is led by Oxford Professors Andrew Farmery, Mark Thompson, Tim Denison, Paul Goulart and Alfonso Castrejon-Pita and DPhil student Rob Staruch and King’s College London’s Prof Sebastien Ourselin and Dr Federico Formenti.

To find out more about this project visit: https://oxvent.org/