How two people will be able to be attached to a single ventilator in Serbia - using diving masks?

The people who are developing this are the real, unassuming heroes of Serbia

Jovan Tisma, the Startup Genome ambassador for Serbia, is currently a member of a working group set up by Nenad Popovic - Serbia's minister without portfolio in charge of innovation and technological development. Beside him, other people from IT companies, innovators, academicians and medical professionals are members there.

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It is a project of the Maker Association who have already shown great solidarity and a desire to help the state of Serbia, and who are already supplying our medical staff with 3D-printed visors. These are our true, unassuming heroes in the fight against the vicious Covid-19 disease.

The project they are currently working on is a 3D-printed attachment that allows one ventilator to be used by two patients at the same time, which is of great importance in the fight against coronavirus.

Still, special masks are needed to put this into action, and, believe it or not, these are the ones normally used for snorkeling.

"These are masks already used by the Italians, specifically the Decathlon ones that are used for snorkeling. On the other hand, the same remodeled masks can be used in conjunction with HEPA filters as the best protection for our doctors working with Covid-19 patients, providing 100% protection and better visibility during surgery compared to epidemiological masks they currently use ," Jovan has told Telegraf.

"The next step is to see how many of these masks we can get. In addition to the support from the government, which is already negotiating with a company from France, we are also targeting private individuals who can procure and donate them," Tisma said, adding that the masks have already been successfully tested at the VMA - the Military Clinic in Belgrade.

At the same time, a working group at the Ministry of Innovation is working on several other useful projects in this time of crisis - like web-shops for small vendors (about 150 e-shops have already been launched), an application through which we will be able to communicate with psychologists, but also to schedule appointments, a software for issuing permits for moving outside during the curfew. In addition, a working group in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine in Novi Sad and the Vojvodina Center for Public Health is working on software to replace Excel spreadsheets for statistics management.

"I invite all IT companies, startups, technology entrepreneurs to join the 'You Be a Hero, Too' initiative and send us their innovative solutions that can improve the anti-Covid-19 system, as well as come forward if they want to donate their services or resources," he concluded in his interview with Telegraf.

(Tara Tomovic/Telegraf.rs)