Flexible, Intelligent and Environmentally Efficient Anaesthesia Machines

麻醉机器提供了新冠肺炎大流行期间所需的大部分紧急额外危重护理需求。然而，在使用这些机器进行重症监护通风方面的问题被强调，例如湿度控制、不熟悉的用户界面和不适合不适的COVID患者的基本通风模式。能够使用像七氟醚这样的挥发性麻醉剂的潜在好处也是显而易见的，但在重症监护中缺乏所需的清除作用也是显而易见的，特别是在静脉镇静库存几乎用完的情况下。由于环境压力，挥发性麻醉剂正在发生变化，这些化合物具有很高的全球变暖潜力-它们占NHS碳足迹的5%，现在是政府指导方针和目标的目标。麻醉剂回收系统已经开发出来，并将于2021年上市，有可能改变一个成熟的麻醉机市场，多年来几乎没有重大创新。目前的麻醉机并不能很好地与这些系统配合工作，因此，有机会开发出具有大流行后所需的灵活性和性能的麻醉机，并且在环境上高效地实现麻醉的未来，并允许在整个医院空间内使用挥发性麻醉剂，而不需要清扫和管道气体系统。这有可能大大降低NHS的基础设施成本，超过麻醉机的成本。该项目将开发、测试和建造两台原型麻醉机，基于半岛医疗技术公司的知识产权，这两台麻醉机针对回收系统和灵活性进行了优化。这项技术提供了一种方法，将环境效率的需求与新冠肺炎疫情的教训结合起来，并产生下一代麻醉机。它还提供必要的监管投入和对所需环境目标的独立评估。麻醉机市场是一个创新有限、进入门槛高的成熟市场，由美国和德国的公司主导。新冠肺炎带来的变化和环境压力，为新技术和新进入者提供了空间，而这通常是被剥夺的。这一点得到了英国呼吸机挑战赛开发的呼吸机技术的帮助，以产生基于英国的解决方案。

Anaesthesia machines have provided most of the emergency extra critical care needs required during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, issues in the use of these machines for intensive care ventilation such as moisture control, unfamiliar user interfaces and basic ventilation modes unsuitable for unwell COVID patients were highlighted. The potential benefits of being able to use volatile anaesthetic such as Sevoflurane but absence of required scavenging in intensive care was also apparent, especially when IV sedation stocks nearly ran out. Volatile anaesthesia is changing due to environmental pressure on these compounds with high global warming potential- they make up 5% of the NHS carbon footprint and are now a target of government guidelines and targets.Anaesthetic recycling systems have been developed and are coming to market in 2021 with the potential to change a mature anaesthetic machine market with little significant innovation for many years. The current stock of anaesthetic machines are not designed to work well with these systems and therefore, there is an opportunity to develop anaesthetic machines that are capable of the flexibility and performance required post-pandemic and also that are environmentally efficient to deliver the future of anaesthesia and allow use of volatile anaesthetic agents throughout the hospital space without scavenging and piped gas systems. This has the potential to significantly reduce infrastructure costs for the NHS in excess of the anaesthetic machine costs.This project is to develop, test and build two prototype anaesthetic machines that are optimised for recycling systems and flexibility, based on intellectual property from Peninsula Medical Technology. The technology provides a way to integrate the needs for environmental efficiency with the lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and generate the next generation of anaesthetic machines. It also provides the necessary regulatory input and independent assessment of environmental goals required.The anaesthetic machine market is a mature market with limited innovation and high barriers to entry, led by companies in the USA and Germany. The changes from COVID-19 and environmental pressures enable space for new technologies and entrants that would typically be denied. This is assisted by access to developed ventilator technologies from the UK ventilator challenge to generate a UK-based solution.