Developing a safe aerosol treatment system for children

While the Covid-19 situation has forced hospitals to adapt new strict policies to stem the spread of the virus, medical therapies like aerosol treatment for children, which administers medication to patients with breathing difficulties, still need to take place. As virus-carrying particles could be released into the surrounding environment during such a treatment, it poses a risk for medical personnel and other patients. A TU/e student team (Team VERO) is currently looking at two solutions for making the treatment safe: a filter with valves on facemasks and an extraction system to prevent a medical aerosol from spreading through a room.

The current Covid-19 situation has led to the emergence of new and unpredicted problems in healthcare that need to be addressed in a timely fashion. At TU/e, this has led to the establishment of the platform “TU/e against Covid-19” at the TU/e Innovation Space, a platform for connecting those with challenges in healthcare such as companies and hospitals with potential solution providers based at Eindhoven University of Technology.

Aerosol can be lost

Covid-19 has changed the healthcare world with providers having to adapt new policies and regulations to stem the spread of the virus. Stricter hospital controls aim to protect patients and staff alike. Nevertheless, therapies for other medical conditions still need to take place.

One such therapy is aerosol treatment, which administers medication to patients with breathing difficulties. In aerosol treatment, medicine is transformed into an aerosol using a nebulizer with droplet sizes between 1 and 10 micrometers. In the case of children, the aerosol is usually inhaled via a cap on the nose or mouth as children’s breathing is quite superficial.

The main issue with this approach is that a medical aerosol can be lost through the cap. In addition, part of the inhaled aerosol is exhaled and does not stay in the respiratory track, and saliva can be attached to the exhaled aerosol. Viruses can be present in this saliva, including the virus associated with Covid-19, and this poses a risk for medical personnel and other patients. 

On the case

Motivated by the need to act on healthcare issues, Liza Boormans (1st year masters student in Biomedical Engineering) connected with her educational supervisor René van Donkelaar, which led to a multidisciplinary student team (Team VERO) working on the challenge related to safe aerosol treatment that is part of the TU/e Innovation Space platform “TU/e against Covid-19”. Van Donkelaar contacted Isabelle Reymen from the TU/e Innovation Space and together they set up the platform.

Van Donkelaar says: “Exhaled breath could harbor viruses such as Covid-19 and this could contaminate the local environment. The students have come together to look at solutions for making the environment safe.” The team are currently working on two particular solutions. ”First, we’d like to place a filter with valves on facemasks that can filter exhaled air, and second we’re seeking to develop an extraction system to prevent escaped aerosols from spreading through a room”, notes Boormans.

Naturally, the team would like to develop solutions that could be implemented as quickly as possible into a clinical setting. “We have some very interesting ideas and we have to see how much can be done. But in principal, any device that we develop could be quickly put in hospitals because there is no intervention with the patient”, adds van Donkelaar. With the laboratories at TU/e now open once again, Boormans and the student team have the opportunity to try out their ideas and see what might work.

Team VERO is made up of students from the departments of Applied Physics, Mechanical Engineering, and Biomedical Engineering at TU/e, as well as one student from the department of Medical Sciences at Radboud UMC. In addition to collaborating with Van Donkelaar, the team are also in contact with medical experts from Radboud UMC in Nijmegen and Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, who have also provided sample masks. The team also have a coach in the form of Nico Schouten. The mouth pieces under development are intended for children under the age of four and adults who have respiratory issues.