Subsea engineering firm JFD said it will bring to market a new patient ventilator system to support global health systems in fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
JFD has responded to the UK Government’s Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator System call to manufacturers, to support the provision of essential medical equipment to the front-line NHS.
According to JFD, the InVicto ventilator is more advanced than CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) systems.
It has been fully developed, including full in-house testing, and is ready for launch into full scale production and global distribution.
The InVicto system can support global healthcare services by reducing pressure on intensive care unit (ICU) facilities, helping to save lives as the virus approaches its peak in many countries, JFD explains.
JFD says that the InVicto is suitable for deployment in many scenarios, such as pre-critical temporary ward or care home, providing an enhanced breathing ventilation aid that offers an improvement over CPAP treatment. The system extends to full hospital ward capability providing full ventilation support with patient monitoring, breathing gas and O2 management and alarms.
InVicto uses up to 90 per cent less O2 than other ventilators available on the market.
Due to exceptional demand and logistical challenges in supply driven by the onset of the COVID Pandemic, JFD considered that O2 could likely become an increasingly scarce resource to provide at scale. Therefore, the design philosophy was to also produce a ventilator which operates with minimal O2 consumption.
Giovanni Corbetta , managing director, JFD, said: “Since the global outbreak of COVID-19, JFD has been working around the clock, utilising all our experience in developing breathing apparatus and life support equipment to design the best possible solution for patients, doctors and healthcare authorities around the world. As well as basing our design on a proven medical ventilator device, a key part of this project has been to take into account the likely pressures on O2 supply. Designing a ventilator with O2 consumption in mind enabled us to apply our wide range of skills in gas management and highly precise patient monitoring, which we bring from our diving systems and medical hyperbaric rescue capabilities. ”
The InVicto ventilator system is already proven and ready for manufacture, and the oxygen recovery system capabilities are currently undergoing final testing.