IISc completes ICU-grade ventilator prototype

Bengaluru: The Indian Institute of Science on Monday said it has successfully completed the prototype of an indigenously developed Intensive Care Unit grade ventilator in about two months.

Supporting both invasive and non-invasive ventilation, it uses only components made in India or easily available in domestic supply chains and was developed by its PRAANA team, IIsc said in a Facebook post.

The team took about 35 days to go from the drawing board to a proof-of-concept system, and then to build a working prototype in another two weeks.

About Project PRAANA, IISc said it was started by IISc faculty members Gaurab Banerjee, Duvvuri Subrahmanyam, T V Prabhakar and Pratikash Panda, Bangalore-based engineer Manas Pradhan, and retired IISc professor H S Jamadagni.

Many volunteers helped in the project, including physicians Dr Supreet Khare, Dr Sriram Sampath, and Dr Krishna Prasad.

“We are now actively exploring options to collaborate with an industry partner to further co-develop the prototype into a field-ready product,” Subrahmanyam said.

The project received internal support from IISc, external funding from the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, and a Corporate Social Responsibility contribution from the State Bank of India Foundation.

Narayana Health, Bengaluru, provided medical testing equipment for verification of the ventilator performance, the IISC said.