Family physician Ted O’Connell, MD, wants COVID-19 patients around the world to have unlimited access to oxygen when they need it.Anticipating shortages of oxygen equipment to reach crisis levels during the pandemic, he provided clinical expertise to a small team of experts to help conceive of an oxygen concentrator kit – called the OxiKit – that people could use locally sourced anywhere Material.
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The idea behind developing OxiKit was: “How can you do this cheaply with off-the-shelf materials? If it’s going to be built in the community and elsewhere in the world, it has to be something you can buy at your local hardware store,” The Permanente Medical said Dr. O’Connell, the Group’s family physician and chief physician, chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Kaiser Permanente Vallejo, Calif.
He stressed that the concentrator is not a medical device – it’s an open source approach.This means that communities of builders and individuals facing an oxygen crisis have ready access to written instructions on how to build and produce oxygen.
In a sense, Dr. O’Connell said, the OxiKit project complements what Permanente is all about: evidence-based and technology-enabled care.”This fits very well with my work at Permanente Medicine, which is humanizing healthcare. This oxygen concentrator is an effort to really help humanity during this pandemic crisis.”
Dr. O’Connell recently received the Presidential Volunteering Award from the White House and AmeriCorps for his role in the development of oxygen concentrators.In an interview with AMA, he dives into the concept of OxiKit, how it spread through social media, and how it can help save lives in parts of the world where oxygen concentrators are in short supply.
Permanente Healthcare Group is a member of the AMA Health System program, which provides enterprise solutions that provide leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to advance their programs.
Dr. O’Connell: At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a lot of scientific information coming out every day.A lot is unknown and I get a lot of questions from patients, family and friends.To combat misinformation, I decided to release a podcast on the topic of coronavirus and how it affects medicine and science, as well as all aspects of society.Along the way, I have connected with those who are striving to contribute through science, business, social media, and public health.
In that process, I was introduced to a small group of people who were exploring what would happen if our healthcare system really became overwhelmed and there weren’t enough hospital beds and ICU beds for individuals.How can we mitigate this crisis?
Post time: Mar-01-2022