Live updates on the Breath initiative

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mudita decided to take up the challenge of constructing a simple and inexpensive ventilator project, designed to provide a critical life support function at the Intensive Care Units (ICUs). We're collaborating with the doctors from the Foundation of Research and Science Development in Warsaw, to quickly create a device that could significantly aid the medical professionals in their fight against the COVID-19.

We called it Breath. You can read more about the initiative on a dedicated page.

In this blogpost we will be publishing the latest updates about Breath development.

If you can help in the development of the project or your hospital needs support, please let us know about it in a comment below or contact us at covid19@mudita.com.

10 October 2020

We are excited to announce that Mudita Breath has been honored in the special “War on Virus” category. Today, the official list of winners was published, which announced the Breath Emergency Use Ventilator System received the prestigious international Diamond Selection A’Design Award.

A'Design Award for Mudita Breath

We are truly proud that among more than 80 nominated projects in the “War on Virus” category Mudita Breath beat the competition. We know that this is also thanks to your votes and we would like to thank you very much for the time you took for voting.

Do you know that the idea of this Emergency Use Resuscitator System came from our Head of Engineer? Once we found out that Mudita Breath won the prize he said: “It was, and still is a race against time, and we decided to act.  From conception, through the prototype, to a fully-functional device, all this was developed in close cooperation with medical experts. Additionally, the lightweight construction of Mudita Breath, its minimalist design with a long-lasting battery, which can power the device for continuously for 2 hours, enabled the creation of a portable ventilator, capable of supporting the patient's breathing in the hospital (both indoors and outdoors) as well as during transport between wards.”

The A'Design Award & Competition is one of the world's leading international design competitions held every year. A'Design Awards are given in many creative areas to recognize the best designers from all countries, in all fields. Entries to the competition are reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an influential jury, composed of experienced academics, prominent members of the press and renowned professionals.

'War on Virus' A'Design Award

The team of experts on behalf of the Foundation for Research and Development of Science includes: Michał Wszoła, PhD, a transplant surgeon, the creator behind the bionic pancreas, a dedicated doctor and visionary scientist, and Dominik Drobiński, an anesthesiologist working at the Central Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Interior and Administration in Warsaw, which, for the duration of the pandemic, was transformed into an infectious hospital, treating patients with COVID-19. Their knowledge and experience in working with patients was extremely valuable at every stage of the Breath project.

The prize awarded in the special "War on Virus" category, as part of the competition organized by A'Design, seeks to promote original concepts, architecture and industrial design that help combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Once again thank you very much for your votes on this special Mudita’s project. We’ll keep you informed about the next steps of our Breath initiative. Thank you for all of the kind words and support that we’ve received from you.

21 August 2020

We are pleased to announce that our design of Mudita Breath medical ventilator has been Shortlisted for Phase 2 of the A' Design Award & Competition 'War on Virus' competition.

Support Mudita Breath and help us fight the virus! Vote for our project here: https://buff.ly/3j1ipcO

Support our fight with the virus by sharing this news among your friends!

How to vote:

1. Click the link.

2. Click the big red button 'Vote for This Entry'.

3. When the new tab opens scroll down to find 'Mudita Breath'.

4. Click 'Consiglia'.

5. That's it!

Vote for Breath!

20 August 2020

We’re getting ready to release our minimalist phone, Mudita Pure, and there’s still a lot going on with the Breath initiative. Together with medical experts and partnering companies, we’d like to help hospitals prepare for a possible second wave of COVID-19. 

What has happened over the last few weeks? A lot of testing and certification procedures. We’re collaborating with the medical simulation centres of Medical Universities in Warsaw and Poznan that work with very complex simulators of human bodies. We received a lot of positive feedback and suggestions for a few improvements. With this knowledge we constructed a new iteration of Breath. At first glance, it appears to be almost identical to the previous one but there are some meaningful differences. 

The most important one is the sensor for monitoring air pressure in a patient’s lungs. There are two diodes which signal when the air pressure is either too low or too high.

We constructed a new iteration of Breath.

Adrian Krupowicz, the Head of Engineering at Mudita recorded a special video, where he explains how this system works and why it’s so important.  

Getting ready for sending the devices to hospitals also includes the certification process. Breath has been tested for medical standard IEC 60601-1:2005/AMD1:2012 by UL - a leading global company that performs tests and certifications on medical devices. Further requirements published by ANSI/AAMI were evaluated and tested internally.

Breath has positively passed the tests and complete documentation was sent to FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) for approval at the beginning of this month. We’re using a special procedure created for medical devices that can be helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

We expect Breath to be approved by the FDA at the end of August, which will give us a green light to set the production. By the end of September we should be ready to ship Breath to hospitals in several countries worldwide. It will be particularly important for hospitals that are in need of ventilators and recognize the FDA approval. 

We've sent the complete documentation to FDA.

We’ll keep you informed about the next steps of our Breath initiative. Thank you for all of the kind words and support that we’ve received from you.

19 May 2020

During the last days we've been working on finalizing both the internal construction and the external design of the device. Breath now has all of its' components and a clean, aesthetic, white case with a metallic board on the front. It's possible thanks to an amazing involvment of all the teams at Mudita, who also keep working on Pure and our future products, and a continuous support of our partners. Breath is still going through the testing process that we expect to finish at the end of May.

If you would like to order Breath for your institution or help to fund the devices for hospitals that need them most, get in touch with us by filling this form.

Below you can find some photos that we took in our office last week!

Adrian Krupowicz, Head of the Breath initiative

Julia, Krzysztof and Jakub from the Engineering team

Radek from the Engineering team

Breath

3 May 2020

We've published a short video where Adrian Krupowicz, the head of the project, explains the main rules behind the Breath project: speed, safety and simplicity. It’s easy to manufacture, fast to assemble and meets the requirements for accelerated certification during the pandemic. We can also see the evolution of Breath made in two weeks - from a cardboard prototype, through the first aluminium version, towards the most advanced one, that is being tested and certified for medical use.

If you would like to order Breath for your institution or help to fund the devices for hospitals that need them most, get in touch with us by filling this form.

24 April 2020

Almost a month ago we decided to build a simple ventilator to support hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. How does Breath look today? We finished another long week in the Mudita office with a short video summary from our engineering team. We’ve selected the key components for Breath and added the new stainless steel casing. We’ve run a lot of tests, including those of the batteries, that now allow Breath to work even when it’s not plugged in. Mudita have already started the certification process so that the devices can be delivered as soon as possible to the hospitals that need them most. We invite you to listen to Adrian Krupowicz, the head of the Breath project - he can speak passionately about valves and pumps like nobody else!

20 April 2020

Today we’ve prepared a longer video for you. The engineers involved in the project will tell you more about the construction of Breath. Together with dr. Dominik Drobiński from the Foundation of Research and Science Development we’ve been testing our ventilator on the artificial lungs.

This week we’ll be continuing the tests and preparing Breath for the mass production, so that the devices can be delivered as soon as possible to the hospitals that need it urgently.

We’ve received many emails and phone calls from companies that would like to get involved in the project - we’re really grateful. Thanks to your support we’re very close to the production stage!

15 April 2020

In one week we progressed from a prototype made inside of a carton box to a fully functional device that we’re testing in a hospital in Warsaw.

We are now getting ready to obtain the necessary certifications to start mass production. The doctors involved in the project, Dr. Michał Wszoła and Dr. Dominik Drobiński are testing Breath in a hospital, with the assistance of other respirators and artificial lungs. We’re looking for local partners that would help us with the mass production process.

On our YouTube channel, we've posted a video update prepared by our Engineering team. Check how in one week we progressed from a prototype made inside of a carton box to a fully functional device.