INTEC delivers first mechanical fans to the Ministry of Public Health
SANTO DOMINGO. -The Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) delivered to the Ministry of Public Health the first 8 units of the Air INTEC mechanical ventilator, manufactured by the university to alleviate the needs of the Dominican health system for this team, particularly in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
INTEC's goal is to deliver 300 units of mechanical ventilators or Ambu (Airway Mask Bag Unit, in English) which manufactures thanks to the altruistic gesture of more than 45 donors, including the government of the People's Republic of China, private companies, individuals , as well as the Ministry of Public Health.
During the delivery, the rector of INTEC, Rolando M. Guzmán, stressed that the academy continues to work intensively to deliver all units in the shortest possible time, considering that they will have an essential impact on the national hospital system.
"We are pleased to symbolically bring the first units of Air INTEC respirators, with which we fulfill a commitment to the country in the sense of enabling a mass production chain of these equipment," said the rector. He also added that INTEC was now assuming the new promise that, in the course of this month, they will be delivering all the units requested by the Ministry of Public Health.
The INTEC president thanked the companies that are working with the university from the first moment to achieve the production chain for the serial generation of these units, individual donors linked to the academic community, as well as external people who have contributed resources to carry out this project, and especially to the Ministry of Public Health, in the person of its minister and his team, who understood the relevance of this initiative and were willing to contribute to its realization.
While Dr. Rafael Sánchez Cárdenas, Minister of Public Health, thanked the delivery and expressed his satisfaction with the contribution of the academic entity to the government's strategy to combat the pandemic.
“I am very pleased to have INTEC by our side, as a thriving university that adapts to the times, offers academic-type solutions and in this case of a technological nature, therefore it is a key partner of the Ministry and we hope that with this project we are solving a national demand, which although at the moment the hospital burden we had at the beginning of the epidemic has diminished, no less true is that the opening that is taking place will always represent a threat to the country and infrastructure of hospitals ”, highlighted the minister.
Sánchez Cárdenas said the teams are part of the response and will make them available to hospitals that need it. "My idea is that in parts of the country that have absolutely nothing, they can have a ventilator to assist patients who would otherwise simply die when equipment of this nature can be the difference between life and death."
The delivery ceremony, which was held at the Ministry of Public Health, was attended by Bienvenido Peña, deputy minister of Health and the advisers to the office of the minister of Health, César Fermín and Diógenes Aybar; while, by INTEC, Arturo del Villar, dean of the Engineering Area, attended.
The Air INTEC mechanical fan represents an estimated investment of US $ 800 per unit, based on material, import, shipping and manufacturing costs, significantly less than that which would be incurred by regular assembly means. Each equipment delivered has an instruction manual for health personnel.
It is based in part on the model of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called E-VENT (authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, FDA, of the United States) and whose plans were released as Open Source.
The device, manufactured by a multidisciplinary team from INTEC, was rated functional after two types of tests, the first, simulated and controlled in INTEC's Medical Simulation Laboratories, and the second, was performed on humans at a health of this capital, and in the Marcelino Vélez Santana hospital, the latter supervised by the Minister of Public Health.
Joining efforts
The institutions that joined INTEC in the manufacture of mechanical fans are the Embassy of the People's Republic of China, AES Dominicana, the ministries of Public Health, Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCyT) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Plásticos Multiform, Mafia de la Peña de los Fumadores, Rockwell, FARCO, the Institute of Professional Technical Training (INFOTEP), JPIM, Machmaker, Mecaproject, TSM, ADERCA, Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), Acrylics DR and Tony Rodamientos.
INTEC thanked the collaboration of Jordi Portet, José Luis de Ramón, José Manuel Cabrera, Ramón Jiménez, Luis Octavio Rivero, Víctor Martínez and Gray Guzmán, as well as graduates Gustavo Ripoll, Adrián Martínez and Omar Pool.