UNS — The Physics Program of Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science (FMIPA) Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta creates ventilator designed as respiratory aids for the COVID-19 patients. The development of the ventilator is exceptionally needed to anticipate the negative impact of COVID-19 as occurred in several countries in Europe and the US with the lack of available ventilator for COVID-19 patients.
With this background, Dr. Ahmad Marzuki and his team from the Optical and Photonic Laboratory FMIPA UNS from early March 2020 has tried to create ventilator as a respiratory aid for COVID-19 patients. Dr. Marzuki stated that with the population density and its high population mobility, Indonesia has the high (alarming) potential of rapid transmission of COVID-19.
“In Italy and US, COVID-19 spread rapidly. Especially in these two countries, the rate of a new infection is far higher than the rate of recovering patients. The result is the hospitals are overwhelmed. The number of available treatment rooms is not sufficient. The hospitals also experience a shortage in ventilator namely a respiratory aid needed by COVID-19 patients. Therefore, we take the initiative to create ventilator so that whenever our country in a position that needs a large number of ventilators like Italy and the USA, we are ready to help. However, we pray that we will never be in such condition,” explained Dr. Marzuki, Friday (24/4/2020).
Emergency respiratory aid is not only developed by UNS. Many universities both domestically and abroad have participated in developing this tool, for example, the team from MIT, Oxford University, Rice University, ITB and others. There are differences between ventilators from UNS and ventilators from other universities. UNS ventilator is designed to minimize the chance of re-mixing of air released from the patient’s lungs with clean air that will be inserted into the patient’s lungs.
“The ventilator from UNS is equipped with a control system that enables the operator to regulated the activity to be adjusted with patient’s condition which included tidal volume, respiratory rate, O2 levels and so on. This is the advantage of ventilator created by FMIPA UNS compared to other ventilators,” he added.
The first version of UNS ventilator has an affordable price and has fulfilled the required medical specifications. “The team from Physics Program FMIPA UNS has conducted a consultation with UNS Hospital concerning the function and the appropriate specification of this tool for medical standard,” Dr. Marzuki stated.
Dr. Marzuki and team will continue to develop respiratory ventilator to reach the national certified medical standard (SNI). In a short time, they will be ready to accept orders from this respiratory tool for clinic and hospitals in need.
Meanwhile, the Dean of FMIPA UNS, Harjana, Ph.D added that the production of the respiratory ventilator for COVID-19 patients from Physics Program is a part of innovation conducted to assist COVID-19 handling in Indonesia. “The team from the Optical and Photonic Laboratory FMIPA UNS will continue to develop this tool,” stated Harjana, Ph.D. Humas UNS/Dwi
