Cambridge companies unite to meet the COVID-19 ventilator challenge in 6 weeks

Cambridge Consultants is one of five specialist medical device development organisations to be part of a Cambridge consortium brought together to rapidly develop and manufacture ventilators in six weeks to meet increased hospital requirements, caused by COVID-19.

This initiative unites competing businesses during an unprecedented public health emergency, with hundreds of experts working night and day. Through close cooperation, the Cambridge community has come together to address this challenge.

The consortium includes: Cambridge Consultants, PA Consulting, Sagentia, Team Consulting and TTP plc took up the challenge, with MetLase provided industrial support.

Working to a specification published by the government, established in response to the clinical interventions understood to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19, these companies are still working on separate, parallel designs, but are collaborating closely to support each other. They will apply a range of disciplines, including electronics, software development, mechanical engineering, human factors, design, thermodynamics and regulatory knowledge.

High volume supply and extremely rapid manufacture are the key objectives, while remaining subject to testing and approval through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency – MHRA.
A development process that would normally take 5-6 years is being attempted within 5-6 weeks, and against the background of distributed teams observing government separation guidelines.