Let us introduce you to "DIEGO", the emergency ventilator produced in collaboration with Scm Group

The role of industry is to support and develop state-of-the-art technological projects, not just for business purposes but above all for the common good. This is why we decided to collaborate on the "DIEGO" project, the first ever emergency ventilator that is simple and innovative, and provides forced ventilation to patients with critical breathing difficulties. Devised in answer to the Covid-19 health crisis, it was the brainchild of the IIT - Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genoa and the University of Ferrara, which turned to Scm Group for help in simplifying it, industrialising it and producing a pre-series of the 2.0 prototype. The 100% Made in Italy device has already been tested on patients and the Health Ministry has been informed. It is reliable, reasonably priced and can be used even in developing countries with difficulty accessing advanced medical equipment. It operates using a simple Ambu type breathing balloon. It is inherently safe because, unlike similar projects currently being tested, the force intervening on the balloon is the force of gravity and depends on the mass positioned on the lever that compresses the balloon. The idea behind it is that the electric motor operating DIEGO does not compress the balloon but periodically lifts the weight of the balloon and then releases it with each breath.

DIEGO is the brainchild of Luciano Fadiga, full professor of Physiology at Ferrara University and director of the Centro di Neurofisiologia traslazionale at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Giulio Sandini, full professor of Bio-engineering in Genoa and Founding Director of IIT, and Diego Torazza, design engineer at IIT.

Research is on-going into how to manufacture this new ventilator to distribute it without profit to hospitals interested in acquiring it.