Accelerated support for HedgeSA

Due to the outbreak of the Corona Virus pandemic, and at the lock-down order of the President of SA, Propella closed its offices on Thursday 26th March 2020.

But, the virus is no match for the energy and enterprise of the innovative Propella incubatees. 

Governments around the world are scrambling to simultaneously contain the spread of the virus and to create the emergency medical infrastructure needed to deal with the impasse. There are real chances that African countries will be at the back of the demand queue.

The Propella ecosystem has been incredibly quick to respond. 

On Saturday the 28th March I received a WhatsApp message from one of the Propella Incubatees, Zain Imran of HedgeSA who advised me that his team had made a breakthrough in the design ofa low cost, automated ventilator that could respond to SA's potentially urgent needs for pre-ICU ventilation support. A few engineering drawings were forwarded to me, and when I saw the ingenuity of the design, I immediately realised that this was a project worthy of pursuing. 

This required switching Propella's ecosystem into rapid-response mode. 

Propella focuses on 4 areas of development. These are:

- Rapid product development

- Assisting with developing the business model and business

- Paying attention to customer validation 

- Enhancing the profile of the Entrepreneur

The above typically unfolds over a period of 3-years, and where necessary (market potential dependent) Propella will also assist with the scaling of the business. 

Given HedgeSA's intent to provide low-cost ventilators within an urgent time-frame implied having a tested product and market-ready in potentially large volumes. It was clear that the Propella ecosystem would have to perform.

The HedgeSA team was advised to stall work on its existing project (a smart water device) and to focus on developing a working prototype, with Propella's support. The HedgeSA team includes Zain and Zaahid Imran, Neo Mabunda and Kelvin Langwani. All are engineering students from the Nelson Mandela University.

Given the lockdown constraints put in place, and to try and meet the urgent need required that the Propella team make use of the digital environment in order to concurrently process the necessary actions. A ventilator WhatsApp group was created and zoom meetings were scheduled on a regular basis. HedgeSA applied for and received the necessary emergency services permit from Government.   

Once a Team was put in place the following key events unfolded over a period of 10 days;

- The proof of concept started taking shape – the Hedge team had taken their equipment, including a 3D printer, home with them

- Propella's network resulted in the initial prototype being evaluated by medical professionals

- The advanced prototype fine-tuned with the inputs of medical personnel

- Engagement with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who which had done work on an open-source, low-cost ventilation project

- Engeli Enterprise Development, which is the commercialisation partner of Propella played a fundamental role in accelerating product and business development and sourcing funding

- Supplier sourcing and formalising the supply chain

- Formulating a business plan to respond to resources, capacities, production value-chain and funding needs

- Design for manufacturability and tooling design for injection-moulding by a Propella incubatee, Clifford Hamilton

- Incorporating standards based on the World Health Organisation

- Endurance testing of the beta model

- Preliminary design of the production facility

- Developing and distributing a media release nationally 

- Incorporating basic business and product information and an enquiry form into the Propella Website Platform to capture interest arising from the publicity generated

During the customer validation phase, Dr Hennie Smit, a GP with extensive anaesthetics experience, said he was very impressed by the simplicity, yet effectivity of the design, and that the ventilator was suitable for use in general wards where it may be monitored by non-specialist nurses.  An award-winning Port Elizabeth-based pulmonologist was also impressed with what he saw and provided guidance on a few additional features. 

All the proposed changes are now incorporated into the ventilator called Salutaris, which means life-saving in Latin.

To have achieved all of the above within a period just short of 2 weeks is only possible when all the elements of the eco-system are aligned and operate in synchronicity.  

It is evident that the digital era provides a supportive framework to nurture the evolution of products and processes, even when we are forced to work remotely. 

As our Incubation manager, Anita states, "this fast-track rollout from concept to production shows the power of the Propella ecosystem which we have crafted over the past few years".