Isolation chamber is a personal protective equipment that prevents the transmission of airborne pathogens during the transport of infectious respiratory patient and reduce infection rate of medical staff. Driven by the rapid progression of COVID-19 pandemic, researchers at MTEC-NSTDA designed a patient isolation and transportation chamber called PETE with multiple key features that overcome shortcomings of products currently available in the market.
PETE has two main components: a chamber and a negative pressure unit. The chamber is collapsible enabling portability and contains no metal parts, thus allowing it to be used in a CT scanner. The chamber has eight built-in glove portals allowing medical workers to access the patient and a connector port for respiratory and IV tubes. The negative pressure unit creates a condition that allows air to flow into the chamber but not leaking out to keep the medical workers safe. Air from inside the chamber is cleaned and sanitized by HEPA filters and UV-C prior to release out. The unit is equipped with a smart controller allowing it to perform under varying pressure conditions, i.e. moving patients from on ground to in flight, and comes with pressure alarm and filter reminder features. PETE is ISO 14644 certified, meeting the standard for air cleanliness.
The production cost of PETE is approximately 130,000 THB per unit, whereas the price of imported isolation chamber in the market ranges from 150,000 to 800,000 THB. As the innovation is developed in Thailand, it is eligible to be listed on Thai Innovation List to benefit from the government procurement program.
PETE technology is available for licensing. It was among the exciting innovations presented at the International Innovation and Business Pitching in THAILAND TECH SHOW 2020. Click here to listen to the pitch, in English language, by Mr. Pornpipat Yoosa from MTEC Design and Industry Solutions Research Team.
