On 5 October 2022, the National Innovation Agency (NIA) celebrated the 2022 National Innovation Day at the Royal Paragon Hall. The National Innovation Awards 2022 were presented to give recognition to excellence in innovation made by the public and private sectors in Thailand. The awards were given out in five categories: The awards were given out in five categories: 1) economy, 2) social and environment, 3) product and service design, 4) media and communications, and 5) organization.
Patient Isolation and Transportation Chamber (PETE) developed by MTEC-NSTDA was awarded the 2nd prize in the product design category. Dr. Sarawut Lerspalungsanti, Director of MTEC Engineering Design and Computation Research Group, represented the research team to receive the award trophy from Assoc. Prof. Soranit Siltharm.
PETE 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. 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 six 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 with 99.995% airborne pathogen removal efficiency 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 meets all the safety requirements for medical devices and is registered on the Thai Innovation List.
