How a tele ventilator will help doctors tackle the COVID-19 crisis
Vinay Joshi, CEO, ABM talks about the newly launched tele-ventilator which can be handled from a remote location and how it can revolutionise the healthcare needs of patients, in interaction with Sanjiv Das
How does the tele-ventilator work?
BiWaze ION tele-ventilator comes with out of box connectivity. Once procured through customs, the ventilator needs to be powered and connected to a Wi-Fi network. In remote places, simply connecting to a stable mobile hotspot will work. The user can manage all the procured ventilators from anywhere with ABM provided logins – either within the hospital, a city or across the globe. BiWaze ION technology will augment skilled respiratory staff to reach and cover more patients in times when skill shortage is acute. It will also protect the caregiver from infection in cases of communicable pandemics by minimising the visits to the patient bedside to manage the ventilator. The ease of use with a touch-screen, connectivity and portability makes it ideal for situations where you need to provide life support in geographically large areas with limited resources.
The tele-ventilator has been in development for the past 30 months and has gone through a rigorous product development cycle of medical product development. Since our first product, our focus has been to provide intelligent and connected respiratory devices for patients inside and outside of the hospital.
In which countries do you plan to launch this product?
We are planning to launch it in Asia including Singapore and India followed by the Middle East and Africa. While European and American companies are working overtime to fulfil the ventilator demands in the current pandemic situation, we believe that BiWaze ION tele-ventilator will be effective due to its natural advantages. We also have plans to expand to other areas of the world later this year.
How is the tele-ventilator going to help doctors tackle the COVID-19 crisis?
The BiWazeION ventilator is an IoT-enabled tele-ventilator designed to allow remote management of ventilated patients. Trained healthcare professionals who can operate ventilators are in high demand and short supply. The BiWaze ION ventilator allows trained healthcare professionals to manage a large number of ventilators from a remote location. The remote location can be on a different floor, in a different city or a different country. Telemedicine has provided a means for healthcare providers to collaborate remotely and our tele-ventilator is designed to work with telemedicine care in tandem.
The critical COVID-19 patients require ventilation to assist them with breathing. By providing a way to manage the ventilator from a central location, healthcare professionals will be saved from repeatedly going into the infected patient’s room to adjust the ventilator, thus reducing exposure to the virus.
Did you receive any approval from regulators anywhere in the world?
We are working with the Singapore government to obtain HSA clearance and US FDA to obtain EUA clearance.
How has AI and technological innovation helped you in this endeavour?
For the past three years, we have been working on solutions and intelligent ventilators for taking care of chronic patients at home. Bigger players like Google, Facebook, Uber and Twitter have created newer technology frameworks which make data-hungry applications and billions of people are able to access data on fingertips without delay. Through generations, the medical devices industry has lagged in adopting new connectivity technologies. With our IoT-enabled ventilator, we are taking the leap towards a more connected healthcare infrastructure. We believe that unless we take proper steps towards an alternate workflow, it will be critically impossible to manage patients at pandemic scale if required.
Is it designed for Covid-19 patients only?
The ventilator is designed for all patients who need invasive or non-invasive ventilation, irrespective of their underlying conditions.
ABM’s tele-ventilator leverages new technology which is 25 times faster and creates 50 times less data traffic than traditional web technologies. What value will this create for providers and patients?
It is important that users feel he is right next to the ventilator in real-time. Delays in reflecting any changes or monitoring delays can be very frustrating and risky. Low latency and low data design of BiWaze ION makes full ventilator functionality available from anywhere in the world.
The remote functionality opens up new possibilities of managing patients in distributed locations by few caregivers as well as preventing unnecessary trips to the patient bedside, thus avoiding infections. Also, the technology not only creates huge value in pandemic situations such as COVID-19 crisis but also for chronic patients or long-term ventilated patients who would prefer to stay at home rather than a hospital.
How will it help to enhance care to patients requiring ICU care?
The COVID-19 pandemic has not only highlighted fall-out of demand-supply of ventilators but also a shortage of trained healthcare professionals, to manage the large volume of ventilators when required. In addition, frequent bedside visits by healthcare professionals to adjust and monitor ventilators increases the possibility of infection, thereby pushing an already fragile healthcare system into further grim. The BiWaze ION ventilator addresses both issues by enabling healthcare professionals to securely monitor and adjust ventilator settings through their online portal from any location.
I believe that this backbone can be used to integrate AI algorithms with a large knowledge base in future, to ease the burden on routine tasks which need physical interference and judgement in today’s age.