Sentient creates "SentOx", an oxygen machine in a briefcase to treat COVID-19. Our Goal : To Save One Million Lives
Announcement posted by Sentient Biionics Pty Ltd 10 Dec 2020
Melbourne— 10 Dec — Sentient Bionics has created a low-cost, hand-portable “Oxygen machine in a briefcase”, called “SentOx”, to help treat developing-world patients with COVID-19 and other curable respiratory diseases. Its goal is simple: To SAVE ONE MILLION LIVES.
In March 2020, Sentient’s founder and Managing Director, Dr Paul Boxer, forecast an oncoming tsunami of COVID-19 cases in the less-developed countries, such as India, Pakistan and Indonesia. The Sentient team of engineers rallied to embark on a philanthropic project to help them. “We didn’t want to be sitting safely in Australia watching millions die in the poorer countries and knowing we could’ve done something to help,” said Dr Boxer. “Nine months later, we’re building our Oxygen Concentrators.”
Why an Oxygen Concentrator?
Like many teams wanting to help, Sentient first looked at building mechanical ventilators. The team researched peer-reviewed articles published in respected medical journals and discovered that the more important need was Oxygen Therapy, not ventilators. So, they set about designing and building their own low‑cost Oxygen Concentrator for low-resource hospitals and clinics. An Oxygen Concentrator takes in normal air and removes the nitrogen, leaving mainly concentrated oxygen, which is suitable for treating patients with COVID‑19, as well as malaria, asthma and curable respiratory diseases like childhood pneumonia, which alone kills more than 600,000 children per year.
The result was “SentOx”, a low-cost, rugged, hand-portable “Oxygen machine in a briefcase”, that meets the WHO (World Health Organisation) specification for Oxygen Concentrators. The first batch has been made in Melbourne and Sentient are now scaling up the production to meet their goal of getting over 7,000 SentOx machines to where they’re needed most. Each machine costs around A$800 (US$590) and can treat up to 200 people over the next 18 months, potentially saving around 150 lives. That’s about $5 per life. How many lives would you save at that price?
So far, the company has funded the project internally, but is now looking for sponsors and donors to help fund the machines. People wanting to help the developing world fight COVID‑19 can fund the build and delivery of one, or more, of the machines, or even part of a machine, by donating on the GoFundMe page (GoFundMe SentOx) or via direct EFT (Visit www.SentientOxygen.net).
Negotiations for volume production are already well underway with partners in Indonesia. The company also plans to supply machines to India and Africa and is looking for like‑minded, ISO‑certified partners to help make that happen. “Our goal is to save one million lives. It’s a huge task but we’re highly motivated and on track to make it happen.”
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Sentient Bionics Pty Ltd is a Melbourne-based, private Australian technology development company incorporated in 2015 to develop innovative, low-cost, robotic hands for prosthetics and robotic research.
Sentient Oxygen Pty Ltd is an Australian Not-For-Profit company incorporated in 2020 as a charitable entity to manage charitable donations and sponsorship solely for the direct funding of the build and delivery of SentOx machines.
Both companies are part of the larger Sentient group of companies, established in 1999 and headquartered in Port Melbourne, Australia, with offices in the UK and USA.
For more information, press only:
Dr Paul Boxer
+61 407 368 005
paulb@SentientBionics.com