Mudita – a Polish technology company, founded by Michał Kiciński, co-founder of CD Projekt, together with physicians from the Foundation for Research and Science Development, has designed a simple and inexpensive ventilator for COVID-19 patients.
Breath is designed to deliver oxygen to a patient’s lungs when their life is in danger and a doctor, nurse or paramedic is not able to use a professional ventilator. Mudita is now looking for partners to help with the production of the device.
Warsaw, 17 April 2020
Mudita, known so far for their work on the first minimalist phone created in Poland, decided to support the health service in the fight against the pandemic.
Mudita’s experienced team of electronic and mechanical engineers, as well as developers, teamed up with a transplantologist, Dr. Michał Wszoła, Dr. Domink Drobiński, an anesthesiologist working with patients suffering from COVID-19, and other scientists from the Foundation of Research and Science Development in Warsaw.
Together they launched a project under the working name of “Breath”– a simple, accessible and inexpensive ventilator,designed to help hospitals that do not have enough high-end respirators available. Within a week, the engineers constructed the first prototype of the device and are now developing it for mass production.
Mudita is currently looking for partners to join the project and help produce the device. If you want to help contact: covid19@mudita.com
“As a technology company, we now have the opportunity to support doctors both locally in Poland and worldwide. It is a race against time, but we decided to act.” – says Michał Kiciński, founder of Mudita.
Breath delivers oxygen to a patient’s lungs, when the doctor, nurse or paramedic doesn’t have access to a professional respirator. Currently, hospitals don’t have enough equipment to help all of the patients and buying new respirators proves challenging because of the high costs and limited accessibility. Mudita decided to base the construction of their ventilator on the AMBU bag (otherwise known as a bag valve mask), a popular resuscitation and ventilation kit that is used in almost every hospital and ambulance, to provide patients with additional oxygen when necessary.
An AMBU bag is a manual tool that, in order to work, demands that a doctor, a nurse or a paramedic presses it rhythmically. With the increasing number of patients suffering from the COVID-19, it’s impossible to provide this kind of continuous assistance sustainably.
The goal was to create a device that could be made with locally available parts. Mudita constructed a mechanism that presses on the AMBU bag using special bellows and helps to deliver oxygen to the lungs. The medical practitioner doesn’t have to do it manually – all they have to do is to set the parameters, such as the air capacity and pressing frequency. Pressure sensors that monitor the whole mechanism and can report a potential fault are also included.
On the basis of a project prepared together with doctors, Mudita engineers have already created a fully functional prototype of the device. The doctors involved in the project are now testing Breath in a hospital, alongside other respirators and artificial lungs. The company forecasts that within the next few weeks the device will receive the necessary certifications and will be ready for mass production.
Adrian Krupowicz, head of Mudita’s engineering team, has prepared videos for the rest of the people involved in the project, presenting their solution and the way in which the device works – Mudita decided to publish it and launched a dedicated page following the progress of the project: https://mudita.com/products/breath/.
Mudita is looking for partners to join the project and help produce the device. If you want to help contact: covid19@mudita.com
Additional information:
Photos and illustrations: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kk124o7akxdfk1c/AACGS7b8-OUjCt1jOZC41Bs-a?dl=0
Video explaining the operation of the device: https://youtu.be/2tdZVuedl7A
Video showing the latest prototype: https://youtu.be/hOrlfvBwj1A
The website:
https://mudita.com/products/breath/
Contact for the media:
Joanna Mazur-Kobylecka
E: pr@mudita.com
T: +48 600 330 052
Breath partners:
Mudita
A young Polish technology company, founded by Michał Kiciński, co-creator of CD Projekt. Mudita’s mission is to design consumer electronics that help ensure balance and quality in people’s lives. Mudita is an international team of research and development specialists, engineers, programmers and marketing experts, based in Warsaw, Poland, with the mission to create high-quality products that put physical and mental health first.
The company name comes from the Buddhist term “Mudita” which stands for ”the joy that comes from the prosperity of other people”. It was Mudita that initiated the Breath project. Thanks to the involvement of exceptional partners with great knowledge and experience, it has become possible to not only quickly develop requirements and a prototype for the device, but also to prepare the procedures for implementation and mass production. At the same time, Mudita’s team is working on establishing contacts with foundations, hospitals and other stakeholders , so that Breath could help doctors save the lives of COVID-19 patients as quickly as possible.
Foundation for Research and Development of Science
The foundation has existed for over 11 years, working mainly with educational and research projects in the medical and biochemical fields . It promotes the development of Polish science locally and abroad, as well as supports initiatives related to healthcare. Its flagship project is their research towards the 3D printing of a bionic pancreas that will enable people with diabetes to live normally. It will also replace the need for chronic insulin therapy.
In the Breath project, the foundation is represented by a transplantologist, Dr. Michał Wszoła, and Dr. Domink Drobiński, an anesthesiologist working with patients suffering from the COVID-19 virus. Their knowledge and experience in working with patients have been extremely useful at every stage of the project.