I was president of the IET for 2016-17, and have been asked by government to gather practical and innovative ideas from our Engineering communities. So, please enter any ideas you might have in this thread that might help address and mitigate the Covid-19 crisis. Ideas might include digital tracking / monitoring through therapy equipment and beyond. Even ideas outside your usual expertise domain will be welcome. Now’s the time for Engineering to show we can change the world!
Thank you for opening up this forum topic. I'm a VC investor with a number of companies that want to make a difference.
One company delivers data visualizations that marry with predictive analytics. It helps users to drill down into data better to gain hindsight, insight and foresight into what happened and what might happen.
I'm not advertising their name here, but I'd be delighted to effect an introduction. They are very keen to make a difference in whatever way they can.
We believe it may be helpful if the government or local authorities want to set up war rooms to better understand and manage a range of public health initiatives - including distribution of the disease, antibody results, medical equipment, vaccines etc - over the course of the pandemic.
Here is a simple example visualisation but the software is of course very flexible and interactive.
Many of us who have manufacturing and design capability are working outside the medical industry, to vastly different EU Directives and standards. If we have some cross-over capability, how do we quickly get to find out what needs adapting in practise to safely meet the standards required?
To go through a new set of audits etc with a different Notified Body would likely take too long, even if practical right now.
Thank you a few people have sent me this link about using dive kit - the example in teh link is more about the mask, while we're looking at the oxygen and its container. Nothing saying they couldn';t be combined. There are interesting points which included
* Open to a different approach
* Their approach to recognising it's not approved and who can use
* Their approach to making it available and the design of the parts.
* Recognising that emergency calls for change of protocols.
Thanks for the feedback please keep sharing and discussing.
(Current chair of the IET healthcare technologies network here.) It seems to me there are 3 broad themes here:
... We don't need 100 different open source ventilator designs, that effort could be better spent on refining and testing a few. (>1 is needed for redundancy and to have separate supply chains.) ...
Engineering solutions to Covid19 – Government call-to-action
Hello all,
As part of the urgent need for innovation from engineers and other support in the UK due to the spread of Covid-19.
The UK Government faces the monumental challenge of mobilising and supporting businesses and organisations to design/manufacture tools and devices in a very short period of time.
There is an urgent demand for technologies ranging from providing intensive care, rapid training and education of healthcare personnel, to supporting people who are self-isolating or working from home.
How to get in touch with the UK government If you are a company or an innovator with a potential COVID-19 related solution, please contact the relevant national agency direct:
Ventilators - Contact the Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS): ventilator.support@beis.gov.uk or call 0300 456 3565
Innovation and Tech - Contact NHSX: DNHSX@nhsx.nhs.uk If you have a tech innovation that can support vulnerable people who are isolated, visit the NHSX TechForce19 website.
Diagnostics - Contact Public Health England: coviddiagnostics@phe.gov.uk If you have any other solutions (not specifically COVID-19 related) that could be useful to the health and care system during this unprecedented time, you can access AHSN advice and support by visiting www.ahsninnovationexchange.co.uk.
Zoe Webster, Data Economy Director at Innovate UK asks if we know of any firms in the Dagenham area (or within commuting distance) who might have spare/furloughed electronics engineers (with technical grade electronic engineering skills) who might be able to help with ventilator assembly and testing in the immediate term. She wondered if IET might be able to identify relevant engineers or companies. Please respond to me directly::jeremy.watson@ucl.ac.uk
