Sri-Lankan Innovator’s battling Covid-19
“The Life-blood of Innovation is problem solving.”- Unknown
Covid-19 has over 1 million people affected worldwide as of 7th April 2020 with over 75,000 deaths. Being a little island in the Indian ocean, Sri-Lanka has over 130 active cases with 6 deaths. We can all agree that the world we are in is now facing one of the toughest problems in many decades.
As a advocate of Innovation, I have be constantly studying the scope of Innovations in Sri-Lanka for the past 5 years. Something that I always believed was that Sri-Lanka is one of the most Innovative nations in the world. Although technically we are ranked at position 89 in the Global Innovation Index of 2019, Sri-lanka has had a very STRONG Maker Culture for many generations! If you heard me speak at any of the tech conferences in Colombo over the past few years these words are not new to you. However, with what is happening is SL, it gives me a perfect opportunity to show to you what I meant when I said the above.
We can all be so proud to see how Dozens of Innovators have taken the initiative of creating amazing Innovations to battle Covid-19 in various ways! These guys have created these solutions with so little time, resources and money. Not only the Innovators themselves, we see how government organizations like the SL Inventors commission has come out to support these Innovators at this time of need!
So here is a list of the Innovators I could find that are helping SL to win the war against Covid-19 :
Medibee Ventilator — Volunteer Engineering Group
The Medibee Ventilator has been created by a volunteer driven group of engineers. The team was able to include almost all the key features that a commercial ventilator has despite the Software/Firmware as well as the electronic design was solely designed and developed by the team itself.
This design that you can see above is the first prototype of the ventilator that the team has designed. The technical capabilities of the machine are : Configurable Pressure Control, Breath Cycle Time, I:E ratio, adjustable PEEP, adapt to patient’s breath in case patient starts to breath naturally while in the ventilator, delectable modes of operation. The team expects to build three more devices based on the lessons learned from the first prototype. The team is hoping to support the fulfillment of the need for Ventilators in Sri-Lanka with this amazing Innovation.
You can find out more information about Medibee through their Facebook page ->https://www.facebook.com/medibeeLK
Low-cost Medical Ventilator — Vega Innovations
Vega is certainly not a name new to Sri-Lankans. Few months ago they unveiled the “Vega” which is Sri-Lanka’s first ever electric super car. Vega Innovations is a subsidiary of CodeGen International which is a software product company in SL. The innovative team of engineers stepped up to create this ventilator with a very unique design. The most simplest form of a medical ventilator is by using the Ambu Bag Design, but the team at VEGA has developed this unique design which optimized the usage of this equipment to be used to treat Corona-virus patients in their critical phase.
A ventilator if purchased would could an estimated value of USD 30,000 but with this unique design they are cable of produced a simple machine for a very low cost of just USD 650! As mentioned by them these are the technical specifications of this Low-cost Medical Ventilator :
Volume Controllable From 300ml to 1300ml, Control Inhalation Timing And 1:E Ratio, Up To 35 Breath Cycles Per Minute, PEEP Pressure Adjustable From 30–40 cmH2O, Inhalation Pressure Up to 40cmh2o, Safety Valve at 40 cmH2O, Safety Alarms for Under And Over Pressure As Well Unreachable Breath Cycles, Runs on Compressed O2 And Compressed Air.
This project is coordinated through TRACE with the Product Design & Engineering aspect done through Vega Innovations. This device has also been been tested in Sri Lanka under the supervision of Dr Chandana Karunarathna, Consultant in Anesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine at Ministry of Health of Sri Lanka.
For more details Visit : www.vega.lk/articles/2020/04/01/low-cost-medical-ventilator-manufactured-by-vega-innovations-to-support-covid-19-outbreak
Patient Monitoring System for Covid-19 -Anuruddha Tennakoon
Anuruddha is the amazing Innovator behind the MagicBit which is an amazing Robotic Education platform. He is the founder of A & T Labs and has been creating many Innovations since his university days! His first Innovation is a Remote Corona-virus Patient Monitoring system that he has created using his very own product : The MagicBit.
The system monitors patient parameters such as temperature , heart rate and
Oxygen level in the blood. The patient also gets an interface to mark the
severity of the breathing condition, runny nose and etc. These parameters are
visible in an online dashboard to the health care authorities to take action to
most critical patients only methods.
Simple DIY Home Ventilator — Dr Jeewaka Prebashwara Dayarathne & Co
Dr. Jeewaka teamed up with Eng. Sajitha Dassanayake & Eng. Arundalu Udana to create this very Simple DIY Ventilator called the “COVENT DIY”. Their main objecting in creating this Innovation was to create a very easy to build DIY Ventilator. The total Cost of the device is only $90 which is around LKR 15,000!
Low-Cost Mechanical Ventilator — Lakshitha Dinidu Wijayarathna
Lakshitha hails from Badulla, Sri-Lanka and he is currently developing this Low-Cost mechanical ventilator in collaboration with the Provincial General Hospital in Badulla. One of the specialties of this machine is that Doctors have the ability to control / handle this machine from another location or remote watching & control. This feature can reduce the time spent by doctors with a patient with the Covid disease.
Remote Controlled Robot to disinfect public places — UoM Team, Tharindu Suraj & Co
Tharindu Surag along with a team of colleagues at the University of Moratuwa are currently developing a remote-controlled robot which can be used to disinfect public places. According to him, the current method used in SL (Disinfectant Liquids) consumes a considerable time for the process. This time can be reduced by 60% with the robot that they are designing!
According to Tharindu, he has found that countries like China and Korea have been using such robots to effectively disinfect public places. The research he has done made him to identify this technology is very expensive if imported (Around LKR 3 bil). Therefore he along with his team had decided to develop this machine in SL within just 2 weeks time! Their robot does not use any liquids and instead use Ultraviolet waves. Their plan is to introduce this robot to Hospitals in SL.
Pressure Controlled Ventilator System — Dr. Prasad Anusha & Atlas Co.
Dr. Prasad hails from the base hospital in Kalmunai Sri-Lanka. He has developed this Pressure controlled Ventilator system that has the capability of serving up-to 17 patients at any time within an ICU setting! He has developed this along with a team of engineers from Atlas lead by Mr. Dayan. This system can detect spontaneous breathing of the patient and change into SIMV Mode spontaneously. This machine also uses a design which is different to the traditional Ambu-bag.
Automated Guided Vehicle to Carry Food & Medicine — Atlas Axillia PLC
This is yet another example of a corporate supporting the healthcare industry by introducing an innovation. The AGV can carry food and medicine to patients and perform basic medical check-ups, such as checking temperatures. It also enables doctors to monitor patients remotely, while having conversations with them through the cameras mounted on it. In addition to this, the AGV can charge itself using a wireless charging port, further reducing its physical proximity to healthcare workers. The use of the AGV will automate patient monitoring, thereby enabling healthcare workers to apply their expertise in managing the crisis more efficiently and to stay safe while saving lives.
Ventilator — Buddika Marasinghe
This ventilator machine has been developed by Eng. Buddika Marasinghe who is a graduate from the University of Moratuwa Sri-Lanka! He has created multiple robotic innovations which are currently being used workshops in Biyagama and Gampaha.
Ventilator Repair Project — University of Pera
This is not essentially a new Innovation but this project definitely deserves to be on this list! A group of students in the Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering (DEEE) has repaired and restores dozens of ventilators from various hospitals within a very short period of time! It’s an amazing showcase of the technical talent within our universities. This project was led by the students : Chirantha Jayasinghe, Jagath Prasanga, and Dhammika Dharmadasa from E04 batch.
There you have it guys! These are just a few of the amazing Innovators which I found! I know for a fact there are dozens more amazing Innovators who are day-by-day creating marvelous innovations to fight this battle against Covid-19. It goes without saying how proud we can be as a nation to be blessed with such an amazing Maker Culture among our citizens!
If any of you needs to be in touch with the Innovators mentioned here, feel free to e-mail me on jehan@igniterspace.com. Let’s support our local Innovators & Entrepreneurs because #TogetherWeCan!
