PRODUCTS, TECHNOLOGIES AND SERVICES TO HELP IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID 19 ADVERTORIAL
COVID-19 Oxygen Monitor – 2 Years' Work in 5 Days I
n March 2020 the team at Oxford Optronix were dealt a challenge. The Covid-19 pandemic was hitting the UK, and the company had just been asked to join a high-tech consortium to supply cPAP medical devices
to the National Health Service. Desperately needed for Covid patients with breathing difficulties, continuous Positive Airway Pressure (cPAP) devices were in short supply across the NHS. Specifically, an oxygen monitoring device was required to continuously monitor the concentration of oxygen being delivered to the patient and to provide alarms should the oxygen levels deviate from prescribed limits. But how do you design and build a brand-new medical device from scratch in just five days?
‘On 21st March, I received an urgent call from Professor Mervyn Singer of University College London
Hospital explaining to me the vital importance of cPAP in supporting COVID-19 patients with breathing difficulties, especially in those cases where conventional ventilation isn’t justified or potentially injurious to the patient. Minutes later, I was being quizzed on how to design, develop and manufacture a monitor to continuously measure the concentration of oxygen being delivered to the patient via cPAP. I soon realised that Mervyn was rather politely asking me to do something in five days that would normally take two years!’ - Dr Andy Obeid, CEO Oxford Optronix
The Oxford Optronix engineering team immediately realised they’d need a touchscreen interface, to
display the current oxygen concentration and also allow users to set upper and lower alarm limits for patient safety. Normally this would involve sourcing suitable display hardware, writing code to drive the display and generate the interface, and integrating the display with the oxygen sensor and other electronics. Each of these stages alone would usually take months to complete.
Fortunately, Oxford Optronix was already familiar with Lascar’s PanelPilotACE, a unique integrated touch
screen with the processing power needed for the oxygen monitor. Most importantly, Lascar’s Design Studio software would mean nobody would need to write any code: Design Studio features a library of ready- made graphical and functional elements you can drag and drop, and easily combine with system inputs and outputs. In fact, the basic interface was ready in just a few hours, with no electronic integration required - the 4 to 20 mA output from the oxygen sensor could be plugged straight into the ACE.
‘I knew we needed something that would enable us to design and build a touchscreen interface, with
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process control, in under a week. PanelPilotACE was that product.’ – Stephen Douglas, Technical Director Oxford Optronix Lascar was more than happy to provide technical support to the development team and working collaboratively, the first prototype Flo-Ox oxygen monitors were being tested only a week after the initial phone call. Other parts of the cPAP were being manufactured by the Mercedes Formula 1 team and combined with the technical and medical expertise at UCL the system was quickly approved for patient use. By frantically working round the clock and mobilising every individual in the company Oxford Optronix were able to manufacture and deliver 2,000 Flo-Ox monitors to the NHS in just 8 days – a whirlwind of an achievement.
Wideblue develops ground breaking new medical device to help combat COVID-19 Capnometer could help NHS quickly detect which Covid-19 patients need a ventilator
medical device which could help the NHS quickly discover which COVID-19 patients are deteriorating and need a ventilator. The device, N-Tidal, developed for Wideblue client Cambridge
L
Respiratory Innovations (CRI), is a simple-to-use, fully automated, small battery powered personal capnometer which is used to measure the amount of CO2 in exhaled breath during normal relaxed breathing. The changes in CO2 concentration as a patient breathes in and out through the device are measured and can be used to assess the health of a patient’s lungs and general condition. Amid a shortage of ventilators, the device could enable clinicians to prioritise their use based on firm data. The device may also be useful to track progress of patients as they recover after ventilator use. Normally a device called a spirometer is used to assess lung function but this requires the patient to blow long and hard into a tube; Covid-19 patients do not have the energy to do this. Moreover, blowing hard into the spirometer can disperse coronavirus particles and create an aerosol of the virus the air. The N-Tidal device can hopefully be used to assess patients’ lungs without generating dangerous aerosols. It is hoped the CE-marked N-Tidal device will start trials in NHS and US
hospitals within two or three weeks, opening the door for a roll out across the UK and potentially globally. Wideblue has produced 200 units so far with a purchase order secured for another 1,000 units which will be manufactured over the next few weeks. Wideblue became part of Pivot International (
www.pivotint.com) in April
2018 after being acquired by the Kansas-based company for an undisclosed sum. Based in Glasgow, WideBlue has a 20-year track record of helping
clients take innovative and novel product ideas from the drawing board to prototyping and on to full scale manufacture and commercialisation. WideBlue now has a multi-disciplinary workforce of 17 engineers many
of whom have multiple degrees in electronics, physics, product design, engineering and production. The company has won numerous awards for product design including a European Design Award in 2017 for the development of a mobile phone ophthalmoscope for client Peek Vision. It has also won accolades for its work on the I-1 instant digital camera for The Impossible Project.
eading new product design and development company Wideblue, based in Glasgow, is accelerating production of a groundbreaking new
Wideblue
CONNECTINGINDUSTRY.COM/DESIGNSOLUTIONS
www.wide-blue.com
www.camresp.com DESIGN SOLUTIONS | JUNE 2020 37
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