Flanders Make deploys its top expertise to support the medical community and industry in the fight against COVID-19

From its social commitment and mission to support the competitiveness of Flemish industry, Flanders Make takes the lead in technological contributions to the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to the necessary transformation of Flemish industry. The research center released operating funds of €1 million on March 23, 2020 and is now investing in projects developing medical equipment and protective devices as well as in projects focusing on technology to promote social distancing and recognize potentially ill people. The research center is particularly proud to announce that 2 of these projects are already clearly bearing fruit today.

Urbain Vandeurzen, President Flanders Make explains, "Following harrowing reports of acute shortages of life-saving respirators in Italy over the weekend of March 21, we and our Board of Directors immediately decided to deploy our top engineers from Flanders Make on a number of urgent trajectories in order to avoid such dramatic scenarios at our site. We therefore immediately released operating funds in the amount of 1 million euros to purchase the necessary materials and critical components so that our project team could start up immediately. A team of 15 Flanders Make engineers immediately went to work to support the VUB Lab in developing and improving a respirator and preparing for possible production. Subsequently, Audi Brussels produced the first 50 precursor devices, which the VUB-FabLab is now testing and finishing. We do not want to suffocate our people literally and figuratively, and the support we receive for this from companies in the manufacturing industry in Flanders, such as Audi Brussels, gives us great pleasure."

In parallel, Flanders Make also invested, among other things, in an important project that supports healthcare providers in the field of lung examination of COVID patients. Listening to the lung sounds of these patients with a stethoscope is a big challenge for doctors: they have to wear sterile clothing, change clothes and wash their hands before every visit. And even with protective clothing, they are at risk of infection with the virus each time.

"Therefore, in just a few weeks, a team of top researchers from Flanders Make @ UAntwerpen developed a system consisting of digitized stethoscopes attached to patients' bodies, all connected to a computer in a medical staff office. This allows an entire team of doctors to listen and collaborate in evaluating a patient's status. They can even compare results over a period of time and assess patients' progress more objectively, and this without direct contact with the patients. A multi-bed intensive care pilot has been running at Antwerp University Hospital since April 15, and this is just the beginning. Thanks to this innovative system, healthcare providers worldwide will have the opportunity to help their patients more efficiently, in the safest possible way," explains Dirk Torfs, CEO of Flanders Make.

The knowledge gained in both projects is available as open source information to healthcare providers and technical specialists, here and around the world, who are in need of a remote lung listening system or additional respirators.

Flemish Minister of Innovation Hilde Crevits: "Our Flemish researchers and scientists are world-class and this is proven once again during this corona crisis. The Flemish research community is working hard to provide maximum support to our health services in these times. The newly developed respirators and digital stethoscopes show that there is a lot of expertise and potential at Flanders Make and our manufacturing industry."