International Pioneer Groups
The Exovent team is working hard to achieve a fully approved product in the UK but our objective is for local versions of exovent to be approved cross the world. Developed from our original specification, we want products that have been designed and manufactured locally, supported by local medical professionals, engineers, and manufacturers. These units would be developed using locally available materials and designed specifically to meet the needs of the local community, at a cost that those communities can afford.
Exovent, as a charity, wants negative pressure breathing support to be available everywhere around the world, irrespective of income.
Our role is to find the right partners (medics, engineers, manufacturers and influencers) in each territory and support those partners to successfully certify their own negative pressure ventilatory device.. In a controlled manner we are sharing medical and technical information to create a framework for innovation and development that will help achieve a negative pressure ventilatory devices to appropriate medical standards. Through this approach we hope that the benefits of the exovent charity and the devices we help to deliver will be seen across a wide range of communities and that negative pressure ventilatory therapy will be accessible globally at an affordable cost to fight both Covid 19 and other respiratory disease that require breathing support.
If you would like to know more about becoming an international partner or feel you could help us achieve our aims, then please get in contact.
Ghana
A wonderful group of medics and engineers at the Korle-Bu teaching hospital and medical school in Accra joined us on the 11th of April 2020.
They rapidly manufactured their own Exovent device, using local materials to make the cabinet, seals and power. The project has been overseen by Professor Emmanuel Kitcher, Professor of ENT at Korle-Bu and Dr Chris Owoo, senior Anaesthetist and Critical Care Consultant at the Korle-Bu hospital. Chris has been the national lead responsible for the management of COVID- 19 patients in Ghana.
The engineering has been undertaken by Osei Owusu-Nyamekye, mechanical engineer, Abdul Ganiyu Saeed electrical engineer and Roland Sackey, electrical engineer. They are based in Osei’s engineering workshop in Accra. We have had regular Zoom and What’s App communications plus additional email correspondence. They have been knowledgeable, flexible and committed.
Emmanuel and Chris have also been assisted by Dr.Kafui Searyoh, ENT consultant and the Anaesthetic/Critical Care team members Dr.Robert Djag,Dr.Emma Anima Addae and Dr.Danny Sottie. They have all volunteered to try the Exovent themselves and we look forward to the results of their Healthy Volunteer Trials. Unfortunately, at the moment, they are dealing with a large workload related to COVID-19 on top of their normal busy work.
Ethiopia
Ethiopia Is a wonderful African country with a population of over 109 million people, but with many political, social and health problems. We were delighted when they joined us in May 2020 and we have assisted them to make their own Exovent device which has been tested successfully to maintain 30mbar Negative pressure. They were in the process of organising healthy human trials with some of their doctors and asking for support from their Ethiopian FDA.
Qatar
This amazing group of young engineering students joined us at the beginning of October, along with a senior cardio-thoracic surgeon and the senior electrical and electronics engineer who teaches them, bridging the gap between Hospital and University. Everyone concerned has worked tirelessly to understand every aspect of the basic concepts of negative pressure respiratory support and the engineering theory and practicalities behind building an Exovent. The students have progressed rapidly with superb guidance from their mentors but there is currently a slight delay as a consequence of their exams. We know that they will soon be returning to their speedy progress!
