Emergency ventilator wins BEEA award

Medical device consultancy Team Consulting recently won a British Engineering Excellence Award (BEEA) for developing an emergency ventilator at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The award was given in recognition of the incredible efforts of the consultancy staff, who worked day and night to develop the ventilator in just six weeks.

At the start of the pandemic, it was predicted that the UK would need over 30,000 additional ventilators to help support COVID-19 patients. No safety-critical device has ever been developed from scratch to CE mark in a few weeks, let alone under global lockdown conditions. When the UK Government asked Team Consulting to join its Ventilator Challenge and do just that, the staff committed themselves entirely to the emergency development, with some even camping on site throughout the project to remain socially distanced from their families.

“Everyone involved dedicated themselves entirely to meeting this incredible challenge, working day and night throughout the project. We’re delighted that the team’s collaborative approach and diligent engineering has been recognised by the BEEA. Thank you again to all the companies that supported us in developing this life-saving device,” said Steve Blatcher, Emergency Ventilator Apparatus (EVA 1.5) Project Manager.

The award-winning project team involved 45 Team Consulting employees, medical device manufacturer Cogent Technologies, as well as 54 other partners and suppliers. Team Consulting also worked closely with the government, the MHRA, regulatory advisors, clinical advisors and manufacturers to complete the development.

The completed ventilator, called EVA 1.5, was designed to be accessible in the worst conditions on a COVID-19 ward, allowing healthcare professionals to easily use the device in highly stressful situations. Powered purely on oxygen, it was developed for use in limited resource settings such as hotels or schools, should hospitals become overrun.

While the situation of the pandemic and the need for ventilators has since changed, the full EVA 1.5 design and development history has been transferred to the UK Government and the Crown, ready to be deployed should the need arise.