UCL Ventura breathing aids for COVID-19 patients

Our team of UCL engineers, UCLH clinicians and industry partners Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains have developed a breathing aid that can help keep COVID-19 patients out of intensive care. See below for information on accessing the devices and designs.

10,000 breathing aids have been manufactured for use in the UK and are now being used in over 130 NHS hopsitals. The designs were licensed at no cost to support the humanitarian, global fight against COVID-19. UCL-Venturas are now being manufactured and distributed across the world, with use in hospitals in over 30 countries.

This project is a collaboration between UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering, UCL Mechanical Engineering, University College London Hospital (UCLH) and Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains.

Becky Shipley and Tim Baker at MechSpace

About us

Find out more about our CPAP device, the clinical impact it will have in helping COVID-19 patients to breathe, the engineering process behind it and find regular updates on our project's progress.

G-TEM

Accessing the UCL Ventura for the NHS

The Department of Health has ordered up to 10,000 UCL Ventura CPAPs. If you are a healthcare professional in the UK, find out more about obtaining devices for your NHS hospital. This will be of no additional cost to your hospital.

CPAP

Accessing UCL Ventura designs for international use

Our humanitarian intention is to distribute and share the UCL Ventura device to help public health efforts during the Covid-19 pandemic emergency. Find out how to access it for free internationally.

Our team

Our team

We are an interdisciplinary team of mechanical engineers from UCL, clinicians from UCLH and partners Mercedes-AMG HPP bought together through the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering.

CPAP device in hands

Engineering deep-dive

This breathing aid was produced by engineers within a rapid timeframe – it took fewer than 100 hours from the initial meeting to production of the first device. Find out more about our engineering process.

The team pose for a photo at UCL

Coverage of our story

Our team's development of CPAP breathing aids has received global coverage. Find out more about our story by reading, watching and listening to some of this coverage.

Got a question?

Accessing devices for NHS hospitals (UK) - more information here

Accessing devices for international use - CPAPcovid19@ucl.ac.uk

Accessing designs and manufacturing instructions - downloads available here

Additional questions and technical support - ihecovid19response@ucl.ac.uk

Communications and media inquiries - Georgie Cade, g.cade@ucl.ac.uk

Twitter - @health_eng

Newsletter - sign up to our healthcare engineering monthly newsletter here

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Royal Academy of Engineering - President’s Special Award for Pandemic Services

Our team has received an award from the Royal Academy of Engineering for exceptional services during a pandemic. The awards, given to 19 individuals and teams across the UK, honour exceptional engineering achievements in tackling Covid-19.

CPAP packing

Our international progress

We released the designs and manufacturing instructions at no cost to support the international fight against COVID19. Over 1900 teams from 105 countries downloaded the designs, and we are now supporting them with local manufacture. From Peru to Pakistan, teams across the globe are now producing UCL-Ventura devices to support their countries. UCL-Venturas are being used in over 25 countries - see some of their progress.

Spotlights on international teams

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Our campaign fund

There is an urgent need for more breathing aids internationally to support the fight against COVID19. We have 200 kits ready to be shipped immediately to countries in need - if we can raise funds to cover the basic, not-for-profit costs of materials, manufacture and delivery.

Learn more and donate