Governments across the world, healthcare providers and device manufacturers can now request a free of charge licence to the design and manufacturing files of a breathing aid developed by UCL, UCLH and Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (Mercedes-AMG HPP) to support healthcare systems preparing for the Covid-19 pandemic.
UCL Business (UCLB – UCL’s commercialisation business), through its e-lucid express initiative, has published all the necessary files to build the UCL-Ventura breathing aid, bringing a much-needed solution for COVID-19 patients to other countries in record time.
The designs are now available for download on UCLB’s dedicated site for technologies tackling the pandemic: covid19research.uclb.com.
UCLB is also offering free access to the e-lucid licensing platform to any university or researcher in the world that wishes to license under controlled conditions technologies that could help battle, model or better understand the pandemic.
The hope is that the UCL-Ventura breathing aid is the first of many innovations tackling the pandemic to become available through the dedicated site covid19research.uclb.com and that other universities join this effort by making available their technologies related to COVID-19 on the e-lucid platform.
Dr Anne Lane, CEO, UCLB said: “The collaboration highlights the positive impact that academia, healthcare and industry can have working together to fight the world’s biggest challenges. The e-lucid platform has allowed UCLB to provide UCL researchers with a portal which allows them to disseminate COVID-19 related R&D outputs in an efficient and scalable manner, as we collectively all seek to tackle the challenges arising from this pandemic.”
Professor Rebecca Shipley, Director of UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering, said: “These life-saving devices are relatively simple to manufacture and can be produced quickly. We hope that, by making the blueprints publicly available, they can be used to improve the resilience of healthcare systems preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic globally. My thanks go to the brilliant engineers, clinicians and team at UCLB who have come together and made this happen at a pace that would be considered unimaginable under normal circumstances.”
Dr Celia Caulcott, Vice-Provost (Enterprise) at UCL, said: “The collaboration between the best minds at universities, industry, government and other innovative partners has never been more needed. This incredible achievement has been supported by the ability of all involved to work together and distribute key information through licensing, and shows how universities can support industry in piloting approaches to help fight the major challenges of the 21st century.”
