Kaisar Ahmed Alman

Respiratory support devices in resource-limited settings should be inexpensive, portable, effective, and easy to use. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has strained hospital systems worldwide, causing a severe shortage of intensive care units (ICU), respiratory support devices, and oxygen supply. Noninvasive ventilation (NIV) in pre-ICU settings effectively reduced ICU admissions. Moreover, the availability of medical devices in developing countries like Bangladesh is limited and not well distributed. Healthcare centers in rural or suburban areas are not well equipped to treat respiratory diseases, one of the top diseases responsible for the death according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). To mitigate this challenge ‘OxyJet Limited’, a respiratory medical device startup, developed cost-effective, sustainable respiratory medical devices for achieving state-of-the-art respiratory healthcare facilities in low-resource settings. Their product ‘OxyJet CPAP’ is a low-cost ($10), portable, electricity-free, non-invasive positive pressure ventilator. It is uniquely built using off-the-shelf components and 3D printing, making it inexpensive and readily producible. The existing medical oxygen cylinders and center-line oxygen can deliver CPAP therapy to hypoxic patients using the jet-mixing principle of pressurized oxygen and room air.