PAEC develops Pakistan’s ‘first ICU ventilator’

DRAP-approved ventilator successfully passes all stages of engineering evaluation and medical validation

ISLAMABAD:

Living up to the nation's expectations amid third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) announced to have indigenously developed its own intensive care unit (ICU) ventilator named "i-LIVE".

According to an official statement issued on Wednesday, the ventilator has been developed by a PAEC team of diligent scientists and engineers applying all essential quality standards and regulatory requirements whereas doctors from the PAEC Hospital Islamabad provided valuable input during its development process.

Besides passing through all internal reviews and testing, the "i-LIVE" ventilator also successfully passed the independent reviews and testing conducted throughout the development lifecycle by the evaluation team from the Pakistan Innovation and Technology Centre (PITC) and Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

Moreover, extensive clinical trials of i-LIVE were also conducted at the Jinnah Hospital Lahore under the supervision of senior doctors, bio-medical engineers and medical researchers. It is pertinent to mention that the ventilator successfully passed all stages of engineering evaluation and medical validation.

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PAEC Spokesperson Shahid Riaz Khan told the media that the ventilator has been awarded formal approval, licencing and registration by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap). "After this award of approval from Drap, i-LIVE will be manufactured and supplied by PAEC to meet the critical needs of our hospitals."

He said that this is a giant leap towards self-reliance in designing and manufacturing of the life-saving equipment. "The exercise opens new avenues for multidisciplinary experts from various fields like software, hardware, mechanical, bio-medical engineering, medical and quality management to come together and serve the nation in distinct ways."

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He said that the contribution is also aligned to Pakistan's vision of knowledge-based economy and geo-economic strategy.

PAEC Chairman Muhammad Naeem (HI, SI) congratulated PAEC scientists, engineers and doctors for this great achievement and assured that as the Drap has given green signal, massive production of PAEC-developed ICU Ventilator, i-LIVE, will be commenced immediately to meet the growing demand of hospitals for this crucial equipment in the context of on-going coronavirus pandemic.