UW Bioengineering’s Bioengineers without Borders (BWB) has received a $30,000 seed grant from UW’s Global WACh-Coulter Foundation partnership to support development of an anesthetic delivery device for low-resource settings. Bioengineers without Borders is a student organization that aims to develop low cost, sustainable medical technologies while providing students with engineering design experience and professional development. Learn more about Bioengineers Without Borders.

The funding will support a project entitled “An Affordable, Portable Drawover Vaporizer,” led by the Anesthesia Device Team within BWB.  Most anesthetic delivery devices used today are not realistic for use in clinical environments typically found in the developing world. They are difficult to transport, not sufficiently durable, costly and require access to reliable power sources. The team aims to address these challenges by developing an inexpensive, portable device that can be used by minimally trained anesthesia technicians in low-resource settings.

In addition, the team is building a collaboration with Seattle-based PATH and has applied for an internal grant from the organization.

The student-led project’s principal investigators include  UW Bioengineering’s Dr. Wendy Thomas and UW Anesthesiology’s Dr. Anthony Roche. The student team includes BioE Ph.D. students Eric Swanson and David Peeler, undergraduates Kaleb Smith, Philip Walczak, Michael Butler, Kurt Duong, Kim Hua, Timmy Lee, Susana Machado and Gaby Pang, and recent M.S. graduate Mallory Monahan.

UW Global WACh aims to make scientific discoveries, cultivate leaders and bridge disciplines to advance the tightly connected health and well-being of women, adolescents and children. Their partnership with the W.H. Coulter Foundation provides seed grant funding to support collaborative, translational biomedical engineering research projects.

PATH is an international nonprofit global health organization that supports emerging and persistent global health challenges, including access to health technologies, family and reproductive health, immunization, HIV, malaria and tuberculosis.