PAEC develops first ICU ventilator

Islamabad : Taking a leap towards self-reliance in designing and manufacturing of life-saving equipment, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Wednesday announced having indigenously developed its own Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ventilator named ‘i-LIVE.’

The ventilator has been developed by a PAEC team of scientists and engineers, applying all essential quality standards and regulatory requirements, with doctors from PAEC Hospital, Islamabad, providing valuable input during its development process.

The spokesperson of PAEC Shahid Riaz Khan told the media that the ventilator has been awarded formal approval, licensing 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 hospitals. 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. The contribution is also aligned to Pakistan’s vision of knowledge-based economy and geo-economic strategy.

PAEC Chairman of Muhammad Naeem congratulated PAEC’s scientists, engineers and doctors for the achievement and assured that as DRAP has given the green signal, massive production of ‘i-LIVE’ will immediately be commenced to meet the growing demand of hospitals for this crucial equipment in the context of the ongoing pandemic.

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 Pakistan Innovation and Technology Center (PITC), Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).

Moreover, extensive clinical trials of ‘i-LIVE’ were also conducted at 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.