Project Praana, which is a volunteer project by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), made plans for a basic ventilator that could be put together with parts and materials made in India. This was done because there weren’t enough medical ventilators available during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About Project Praana:
Purpose:
To help meet the urgent need for ventilators as COVID-19 spread, the team worked to create a ventilator that would work just as well as the ones used in Intensive Care Units.
Developer:
A team of engineers and researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have worked on finding solutions to make farming waste less urgent.
Key Features:
Prototype ventilator: The project led to a working prototype of a ventilator that is meant to help people in intensive care who need extra help to breathe.
Open-source design: The ventilator design was made freely available to anyone to help get more people involved and work together.
Focus on Indian-made components: The ventilator was made to use parts that could be bought or made easily in India or got from the local market.
Fine-grained control: The ventilator lets doctors adjust exactly how the patient is getting oxygen in small and detailed ways.
Supports both helping patients with breaths through a tube and letting them breathe on their own without a tube. The ventilator is made so it can help with both regular breathing assistance and helping with breathing when the lungs aren’t working well.
Timeline:
The team made a working version of the ventilator in just 35 days.
Team:
The project was run by faculty from IISc and had some volunteers, like doctors, helping out.
Funding and support:
Project PRAANA was helped along by staff at IISc, got some money from the Principal Scientific Adviser in the government, and also got a donation from the State Bank of India Foundation.
