Inspiration
We analyzed the COVID19 situation in Germany and built an adaptable template for every nation. Currently, there is no scalable scenario to distribute the limited ventilators to hospitals in a stressed region according to their needs. Therefore we have designed a "ventilation pool".
What it does
The special feature in this concept are the flying material stocks of an airline. With the help of Lufthansa's free capacities, a circuit flight schedule for 16 aircraft and 4 backup aircraft, 150 ventilators can be kept available at all 16 German commercial airports at any time. The Transport from the nearest airport to the requesting hospital is planned with overcapacities of taxi or Uber couriers. The material stock of the ventilators thus reacts to the needs of hospitals in an entire region within the shortest possible time. If a "flying stock" has run out, it is returned to the material centre and replaced by a backup aircraft. If the regional demand for ventilators eases, they are returned to the pool and can be used in other regions.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenges of a project like this lies in the extreme interdisciplinarity and organisational complexity. For this reason, we contacted a lot of companies to set up the table. The key criteria is to keep it simple and pragmatic. If you like to use that template in your country work with small companies and without large structures
Contacted German Companies: Drägerwerk AG & Co. KGaA Löwenstein Medical Car German Red Cross Press and Communications Department DFS German Air Traffic Control German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior Christian Lindmeier, Spokesperson of the WHO Lufthansa Group Airbus S.A.S. Pilot from Lufthansa Cargo Bundeswehr jet pilot
In addition, we are a very small team of only 5 people.
What's next for Ventilation Device Pool
Procedure and implementation During the German COVID19 Hackathon #wirvsvirus we started out with just an idea in the back of our minds and a blank sheet of paper in our hands. At all times we asked ourselves how we could save as many lives as possible with this solution.
First the topic was clearly defined (Friday, 20.03.2020) and then tasks were delegated according to the Scrum principle. In second place was extensive research work, which turned out to be very difficult over the weekend (Saturday, 21.03.2020).
When the necessary information was collected, the detailed planning and technical implementation began. Only in the last place the concept was prepared. However, the focus was on the simplicity and comprehensibility of the explanation, not on graphic perfection (Sunday, 22.03.2020) .
The pragmatic use of already existing resources such as idle aircraft and overcapacities at taxi companies not only creates a time advantage during the implementation but also a monetary added value during the later implementation.
We have deliberately opted for an open scale approach. This means that the database can also be written to from other systems. This has the advantage that, for example, data from apps for determining requirements or forecast models can also be used to control the logistics system.
Outlook This project has to be done in a maximum of haste! Once the required material has been distributed to different hospitals, a needs-based allocation as described in this project is no longer possible. This could lead to a collapse of the health system in some regions.
Besides flexibility and speed, this concept has its strengths especially in the point of scalability. If more ventilators and airplanes are added to the system, further (also European) airports can be covered. If smaller airplanes are used, the degree of compression tends to increase and smaller regions can be connected.
If more items are added to this logic, it will grow in width. This allows vertical as well as horizontal scalability in all directions.
Due to the overcapacities of the airlines and airspace structures, the system can also be used for the transport of patients in Europe. In this way, countries that are already at the limits of their capacity can be relieved. An idea for a follow-up project already exists.
Connections could be established to the following projects of the German Hackathon, among others:
1 043 Medical Care Intensive Care Prediction
1 043 c medical care DeMed
1 005 distribution of aids HospitalConnect
1 005 b Distribution of aids VENTI Register ventilators
1 024 c Hospitals RescueTrack
Acknowledgement Michael Keating deserves great praise for his help and advice over the past 48 hours, providing us with professional and technical support.
Many thanks also go to Manfred Janßen, who brought this project to life. He managed to keep the project team on track during the past two days and inspired us with his outstanding Adobe skills.
Mention must also be made of Timo Siekmann's technical expertise in the area of database conception and technical programming. Thanks to him, it was possible to set up a SQL-based rudimentary database system and an interactive click dummy within a very short time.
Very special praise also goes to Michelle Grüne. Her extensive knowledge in the areas of organization and design, her large network as well as her creativity have enriched the team at any time during the past 48 hours.
And last but not least a BIG THANK YOU to Jonas Werner, who with his relaxed and very human style, took over the leadership of our team and brought us to our goal!
Thank you very much for the outstanding cooperation, it was a lot of fun.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.