When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, there were 10 countries in Africa that had no ventilators and the World Health Organisation estimated that there were fewer than 2,000 working ventilators across the continent. In response, the Open Ventilator System Initiative (OVSI) was formed. OVSI is a consortium of academics, engineers, intensive care medics, innovators and industry partners from across Africa and the UK that evolved an initial idea proposed at the University of Cambridge in March 2020.
This event tracks the story of how OVSI evolved in the ensuing months and explores the low-cost, high quality ventilator and oxygen concentrator that is being produced. This event will feature presentations from key consortium members in Cambridge, Ethiopia and Kenya, along with an inside look into the labs and workshops where they work. This will be followed by a panel discussion between representatives from the Universities of Cambridge, Nairobi and Bahir Dar, along with industry and civil society consortium members from the Cambridge Cluster - Cambridge Precision Engineering and the Centre for Global Equality. There will be plenty of time for live Q&A so that members of the public can ask questions of the panellists.
The event is organised by the Centre for Global Equality in collaboration with the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (CEB), University of Cambridge.