Mercedes F1, UCL to make new breathing aid for COVID-19 patients

March 31, 2020

University College London (UCL) and Mercedes Formula One engineers have just developed a breathing aid which delivers oxygen to the lungs without the need for invasive mechanical ventilation and can help keep coronavirus patients out of intensive care. The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)-approved device “will help to save lives by ensuring that ventilators, a limited resource, are used only for the most severely ill,” according to UCLH critical care consultant Professor Mervyn Singer.

The engineers fashioned the new breathing aid by modifying a simple existing device: they took apart an existing off-patent CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) device, improved the design and adapted it for mass production. A CPAP device pushes a steady flow of air-oxygen mix into the mouth and nose of patients. This reduces the effort needed to breathe in, especially when the thin air sacs in the lungs have collapsed due to the coronavirus, for example. A CPAP device is also less invasive than a ventilator, for which patients have to be heavily sedated and have a tube inserted into their airway. Unfortunately, conventional CPAP machines are in short supply in hospitals.

Early reports from Lombardy, Italy, suggest about 50% of COVID-19 patients given CPAP have avoided the need for invasive mechanical ventilation; more than 2,000 patients are receiving CPAP in Lombardy.

Now, forty of the new CPAP devices have been delivered to ULCH and to three other London hospitals. If trials go well, up to 1,000 of these can be produced daily by Mercedes-AMG-HPP, beginning in a week’s time.

But a note of caution was sounded by Professor Duncan Young of the University of Oxford, who said that the use of CPAP machines in patients with contagious respiratory infections is “somewhat controversial” –any small leaks round the mask could spray droplets of secretions on to attending clinical staff.

Professor Singer assured that if a tight seal is maintained around the mask or, even better, a helmet is worn, and clinical staff have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) then this risk would be minimised.

Andy Cowell, Managing Director of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, said: “The Formula One community has shown an impressive response to the call for support – we have been proud to put our resources at the service of UCL to deliver the CPAP project to the highest standards and in the fastest possible timeframe.”

Meanwhile, a UK consortium has brought together innovative UK industrial, technology and engineering businesses, such as Airbus, BAE Systems, Ford, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens, to produce medical ventilators for the National Health Service. The companies in the consortium have received orders for more than 10,000 ventilators from the government, with production due to begin next week, although MHRA approval is still pending.

Tags: COVID19