In a situation where the rate of spread of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) in Korea is not slowing down, domestic researchers have developed a facility that can quickly quarantine corona 19 confirmed cases. It is evaluated as a practical research achievement that can immediately solve the shortage of beds for corona19 patients.
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on the 7th that “a trial operation of the Mobile Clinic Module will be conducted.” The negative pressure ward is a special quarantine room that can block pathogens inside the hospital from spreading to the outside and treat patients with severe infectious diseases. By lowering the air pressure inside the ward, it is designed so that air always flows only inside the ward so that the air inside the ward contaminated with viruses is not discharged to the outside.
KAIST develops ward for severe corona19 patients
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Medical staff are treating a simulated Corona 19 patient in a mobile eupap ward installed at the Academy of Nuclear Medicine in Nowon-gu, Seoul. Reporter Moon Hee-cheol
– The negative pressure ward developed by the professor’s team of the KAIST Department of Industrial Design Nam Tae-jin attracts attention in that it can relatively quickly build a ward for treatment of severely ill patients. Depending on the size of the bed, the production time varies, but in about a month, you can build a small ward with 8 beds.
In fact, KAIST has been piloting a 450m2 (15m wide, 30m long) ward in the Korea Atomic Energy Academy in Nowon-gu, Seoul, from the 28th of last month. It has a working space, a changing room, and a storage room for medical equipment, including four negative cancer rooms for the treatment of critically ill patients. It took less than a month to build this ward.
Professor Nam Taek-jin said, “It takes 3 to 4 weeks to make an order when a ward order comes in, and if a mass-production model is in place, it can be manufactured within 2 weeks. In the case of a ward installed at the Korea Atomic Energy Institute, one ward and one full room are It took 15 minutes to assemble and 5 days to set up the entire ward.”
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The exterior of a mobile negative pressure ward made of air tents. Reporter Moon Hee-cheol
– This quick installation and assembly is possible because most of the equipment required for hospital rooms and wards is configured like a kind of module. The wall was built with standardized panels, and an air tent was used between the panels and the panels.
The device that makes the interior of the hospital room created in this way into a negative pressure room is a negative pressure frame. A sound pressure frame the size of a refrigerator with a width of 1.8m, a height of 2.1m and a width of 0.8m controls the air pressure inside the hospital room. The intake ventilator sucks in outside air and at the same time exhales the air through the exhaust ventilator. At this time, the pressure inside the hospital room is controlled by exhausting more air than the intake amount.
Minsoo Cho, head of the emergency medical service at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, explained, “Because the contaminated air inside the hospital is leaked to the outside through the HEPA filter of the negative pressure frame, indoor viruses do not leak to the outside.”
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The mobile negative pressure ward is designed to transfer objects from the outside to the inside through a pass box. Thanks to this, it is possible to diagnose Corona 19 from outside without having to enter the medical staff directly. Reporter Moon Hee-cheol
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Will the Corona 19 bed shortage be resolved
– The result of this research attracts attention because it can quickly provide negative pressure beds to critically ill patients who are living or dead from Corona 19 right away. Although prefabricated infectious wards made of containers and tents can be quickly built, they are expensive in the process of securing construction and equipment. In addition, it is only a temporary facility, making it difficult to accommodate critically ill patients. However, the ward developed by KAIST can be assembled by humans from panels to air tents.
In addition, the existing space used as a general ward can be converted into a negative pressure bed, or an empty lot and gym can be converted into a negative pressure ward. Professor Nam Tae-jin said, “Because the volume and weight can be reduced by more than 70% and cost can be reduced by 80% compared to the prefabricated ward, it can be stored in a relatively narrow space like munitions, and if the infectious disease spreads rapidly, it can be introduced and installed immediately. There is” he said.
The researchers are conducting simulations of medical activities for simulated patients until the 15th of this month. If the usability, stability, and satisfaction of medical staff and patients are verified, it plans to commercialize it. “The mobile negative pressure ward was designed and manufactured so that patients and medical staff can treat severe Corona 19 patients in a safe environment,” said Cho Min-soo, manager. “It will be applicable to the actual medical field that is responding to the spread of Corona 19.” .
Reporter Moon Hee-cheol [email protected]
The negative pressure ward is a ward that blocks pathogens and viruses by using the pressure difference. The air pressure inside the hospital room is designed to be lower than the outside by utilizing the principle that air flows from high to low air pressure. By controlling the flow of air introduced from the outside and allowing contaminated air to flow in a direction equipped with a purification facility, the spread of infectious diseases such as Corona 19 can be prevented.
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