In troubled times like the ones we live in, our mission never seemed to have made so much sense: serving society through knowledge and innovation. For this reason, NOVA University Lisbon has joined another initiative that puts specialists and the knowledge produced at the University in the fight against COVID-19 disease: the Vent2Life platform.
Vent2Life results from the social movement ProjectOpenAir and aims to identify and repair ventilators and equipment that are not being used in the most diverse institutions, public or private, collective or individual, from education to industry, to equip hospitals and help in the treatment of patients with the new coronavirus.
So far, the platform has managed to identify several ventilators in condition to be repaired, which are in different locations in the country and that are already being analyzed by specialists. The specialists were invited to participate by NOVA School of Science and Technology, by Instituto de Engenharia do Porto and by the Portuguese Engineers Association. At the same time NOVA Medical School | Faculdade de Ciências Médicas came together and mobilized the Portuguese medical schools to support the most effective contact with hospital administrations.
The platform was developed in about a week, by a group of 24 volunteers, joined by an OutSystems team, also on a voluntary basis, who provided technical support and the entire programming of the system. It is now expected that many more pieces of equipment can be introduced on the platform, so that Portuguese health units can be reinforced with a fundamental piece of equipment in the recovery of critically ill patients infected with COVID-19.
Abou the ProjectOpenAir movement
ProjetoOpenAir was born on the internet as an initiative of João Nascimento, a Portuguese citizen studying at Harvard, who, faced with the lack of ventilators for the treatment of patients with the new coronavirus, sought to bring together specialists who could help find a solution through an appeal on Twitter. The goal was for as many people as possible to come together to design and produce a new model of medical ventilator with an open-source method (without ownership rights). The project has already managed to bring together more than 2,500 people who are working through the Slack application.
The Vent2Life project follows precisely the ProjectOpenAir initiative, reinforcing the effort to provide health professionals with the technical means necessary to provide the best health care.
In the News
Portuguese media (content in Portuguese)
Jornal de Notícias - Ventiladores inativos podem reforçar unidades de saúde
Dinheiro Vivo - Plataforma Vent2life quer identificar e reabilitar ventiladores inativos
Notícias ao Minuto - Plataforma 'vent2life' quer ajudar a recuperar ventiladores inativos
Exame Informática - Vent2life.eu: E se um grupo de voluntários descobrir 200 ventiladores?
International Media
New York Times - An Online Lifeline in Portugal for Old Ventilators Amid Coronavirus Crisis
Nasdaq - An online lifeline in Portugal for old ventilators amid coronavirus crisis