SHA to purchase 100 ventilators from Saskatoon company

A Saskatoon company is stepping up to the plate to help provide the province with 100 made-in-Saskatchewan ventilators.

The Saskatchewan Health Authority, the University of Saskatchewan, and RMD Engineering Inc. have struck up a partnership to build emergency use ventilators to help bolster the province’s health-care system during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a media release issued Thursday, RMD’s subsidiary company, One Health Medical Technologies, has been granted COVID-19 medical device authorization from Health Canada for a ventilator the company designed, developed, and built itself.

“When COVID hit, my daughter, a Royal University Hospital ICU nurse, raised awareness of the potential impact on the health-care system,” RMD Engineering Group of Companies president Jim Boire said in the release.

“Knowing we had the skillset, capability, and capacity in-house, we chose to do something rather than nothing and created an emergency use ventilator using reliable technology and readily available materials.”

RMD collaborated with the university and the SHA, utilizing their subject matter experts to ensure the final project meets the province’s needs and Health Canada’s requirements.

“This initiative exemplifies the spirit of collaboration and entrepreneurship we’re so proud of in our province,” said Health Minister Paul Merriman. “Our government fully supports this work, and we are pleased that residents in Saskatchewan and across the country will have access to this equipment, if they need it.”

Now that Health Canada has signed off on the device, the SHA intends to purchase 100 of the units for patients across the province. That should bring the number of available ventilators in Saskatchewan to about 750, according to the release.

That encompasses a number of different types of ventilators, such as high-end critical care machines and “more basic sub-acute ventilators.”

The release notes that One Health Medical Technologies expects to have the first 20 ventilators ready for delivery by Monday.