The Sunday Mail
Fatima Bulla-Musakwa
Youth Buzz
MEDDES Technology, a start-up by staff and students from the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT), is developing four types of ventilators designed to cater for patients in low resource areas at an affordable cost.
The students are developing the devices under the institution’s innovation hub.
HIT last week hosted a Biomedical Engineering Symposium that provided a platform to showcase medical devices designed by students at the institution.
The devices are aimed at contributing to the provision of quality healthcare in the country.
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The symposium was held under the theme “Creating Synergies with Industry Through Innovation, Technology and Research”.
The event brought together experts from the medical field to discuss the regulation of medical devices in the country.
Meddes Technologies started working on the devices two years ago at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when demand for ventilators rose significantly.
Students from different departments under the School of Engineering and Technology came together to develop the medical devices.
The young innovators were stirred into action by the demand for ventilators during the pandemic. This was after research revealed that hospitals in low resource areas did not have adequate biomedical equipment.
As such, when the pandemic subsided, the staff and students continued with their innovation, which resulted in four types of ventilators namely the HITVent 225, 230, 250 and 270.
The ventilators have undergone requisite trial on animals and are now being taken through reusability tests.
The HITVent does not require electricity and uses oxygen for power, which it also delivers to the patient. It was designed especially for areas where electricity is a challenge.
The HITVent 250, which has an LCD display, has an inbuilt battery designed to last for up to five days. The HITVent 250 can be recharged at growth points where there is power and be returned to the health facility. Its functions are almost similar to those of the HITVent 225.
The HITVent 230 is a complete portable setup, which has a 1,5kg gas tank. It can be used by a patient in an ambulance on the way to hospital or from a hospital to a referral centre.
With the hospital or ICU ventilator known as the HITVent270, the staff and students developed a machine that has more details like the ability to monitor pressure, and the amount of oxygen in the air being delivered to a patient.
It has an alarm that goes off if the set levels do not tally with the oxygen levels being delivered to the patient.
The HITVent270 is still under development and it is hoped that it will meet the standards of ventilators currently in use in hospitals.
McCurrie Daniel Hudube, who is Meddes Technologies research and development officer, said the objective of the start-up was to find local solutions for local problems.
“Our drive is to make sure that a Zimbabwean problem is solved by Zimbabweans, thereby help minimise our import bill,” said the student, who will next week graduate with an Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering qualification.
Official data shows that only 0,3 percent per every 10 000 professionals in Zimbabwe are trained biomedical engineers.
HIT has the largest critical mass of biotechnological engineers and machine designers who are looking at how to locally design medical devices of international standards that are fit for Zimbabwe and the African region. The institution is structured in a way that ensures students undertake different projects until they graduate. The projects are also structured to impact the development agenda espoused under the National Development Strategy 1.
In this context, the focus is on universal access to healthcare.
Under the School of Engineering and Technology’s Biomedical Engineering Department, young engineers are being trained with the vision that they will be the change makers in Zimbabwe in terms of design and manufacture of equipment and innovations. School of Engineering and Technology Dean Dr Edmund Maputi said the symposium was a platform for showcasing the institution’s capabilities.
“If we are to attain the goals of Vision 2030, where we say affordable health care for everyone, this symposium is the right starting place. It is the university’s intention to say that we are here and we can make medical devices,” he said.
The project has faced challenges with funding and the absence of a legislative framework to regulate the development of medical devices in the country.
“The reason we are saying ‘let’s do it’ is, Zimbabwe will become a reference point. If we start manufacturing these devices in Zimbabwe, we can export them to other countries.
“We now have the African Continental Free Trade Area, which means, if we quickly get on this trajectory, we will get to manufacturing world-class devices faster and people will generally want to buy Zimbabwean products.
“That will be good for the economy. We create jobs for our people. We provide quality and affordable health care because we will have the devices that are manufactured here,” Dr Maputi said.
The institution intends to develop X-Ray, dialysis and CT scan machines in the future.
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