A simple respiratory assist device leads to the formation of 4GBI:
The Smallwood respiratory assist device was developed by a small group of creative engineers. Beta prototypes were distributed to Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Asamankese Government Hospital and a number of rural health care clinics. It helped save lives during the COVID outbreak in 2020 through 2022. Since this was accomplished with limited resources, more resources were needed to make more Smallwood devices, increase their availability, and continue its development. This was done by forming 4GBI a non-profit corporation with incorporation in 2022. Click Smallwood
to see more about the Smallwood device’s original development and early usage.
Starting an Bioinnovation Center in Ghana:
4GBI has established partnerships with Northeastern University and Academic City University College (a small private college in Accra), to establish an Bioinnovation Center in Ghana. Over the next year, students and faculty from Northeastern University will travel to Ghana and, with their counterparts at Academic City, establish a workspace. Experienced professionals will be recruited to join as resources allow. Projects at the Innovation Center are expected to include continuing distribution and testing of the Smallwood device and developing novel device concepts that address unmet medical needs in Ghana.
Expanding the Support for the Smallwood Project:
The Smallwood device has now been used successfully by respiratory specialists at Korle Bu and Asamankese Hospitals on patients suffering from respiratory distress due to a broad range of ailments including congestive heart failure; severe anemia; atelectasis (collapsed lung); asthma; sepsis; pneumonia; sickle-cell crisis and others. In the vast majority of cases, the device rapidly stabilized and raised blood oxygenation.
The Bioinnovation Center is in the process of assembling up to 100 units to test the efficacy of this respiratory assist device. Then, working with physicians from Korle Bu teaching hospital, these units will be transported to rural clinics where relevant training will be carried out for the non-physician health care workers in residence. Success will be measured by the number of devices that are deployed and the number of patients for whom documentation of the impact of the device on respiratory function can be obtained.
The Bioinnovation Center is in the process of assembling up to 100 units to test the efficacy of this respiratory assist device. Then, working with physicians from Korle Bu teaching hospital, these units will be transported to rural clinics where relevant training will be carried out for the non-physician health care workers in residence. Success will be measured by the number of devices that are deployed and the number of patients for whom documentation of the impact of the device on respiratory function can be obtained.
