UP doctors, engineers develop medical devices to enhance pandemic response

MANILA, Philippines — Engineers and scientists from the University of the Philippines (UP) unveiled several medical devices and technologies that they have developed to improve the country’s COVID-19 pandemic response.

The UP Surgical Innovation and Biotechnology Laboratory (UP SIBOL) was formally launched on Wednesday.

Program leader Dr. Edward Wang said that while the program was only officially launched on Wednesday, their preparations stretch back to March 2020.

“We were overtaken by COVID-19,” Wang, also an orthopedics professor at the UP Manila College of Medicine, said during the virtual launch.

“Things happen in quick succession, and before we knew it, we were in a complete lockdown.”

Wang said the sudden deaths of their colleagues inspired them to push through with the project.

“By the end of the month, what started as the Ides of March had seen an endless litany of friends and colleague front liners whose lives ended too soon,” Wang recalled.

“This personal tragedy and together with the spirit of bayanihan made the small core of Sibol ask what it could do in the phase of this viral onslaught,” he continued.

 Inventions

One of the inventions is the Sanipod, a self-disinfecting cubicle that healthcare workers can use.

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

 They also invented Clean Intubate, which is a device which can be used to disinfect laryngoscope blades used in intubation.

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

 The Power Air-Purifying Respirator, or PAPR, is a device that protects users against contaminants in the air. 

 PAPR comes with a battery-powered blower that purifies the air for the user who uses a tight-fitting respirator.

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

 The UP-Sibol also developed a reusable face mask.

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

The face mask is made of a nanofiber material, and could be used up to 30 times.

It has a biodegradable filter material that could easily disintegrate in the environment, solving the solid waste problem brought by ordinary face masks.

MyBeshie, or My Bot Ensuring Safety and Health in Isolated Environments was designed by engineers to connect patients in isolation to medical professionals. 

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

RxBox is a biomedical device that allows medical workers to remotely monitor vital signs of patients in COVID-19 wards through a monitoring dashboard.

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

Echo On Sight device was developed to allow on site experts to view actual images in real time, which addresses the limited bed side guidance due to the pandemic. 

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

 UP-Sibol also developed Prone Pillow Plus, a supportive pillow that allows safe and comfortable prone positioning for obese and pregnant women in acute respiratory failure.

PHOTO COURTESY: Screen grab from UP-SIBOL

Grant

Wang said the said innovations would not be possible if it were not for the grant provided by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST)-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development.

 Wang said that DOST Undersecretary Rowena Guevara approved a grant of P120 million for the program.

 Before the issuance of the grant, private donors pitched in for the program.

“We went through the process of writing, revising, presenting, defending, revising, resubmitting, and in the process the program was … Sibol — a Tagalog term for ‘germination’,” Wang said. 

 The UP SIBOL program is the umbrella program responsible for the invention of many of the health devices and innovations co-created by UP Diliman engineers and scientists in response to the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

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