Pioneering Australian technology is keeping hospitals COVID-safe
05 April 2022
Photo: Professor Jason Monty (third from left) and the University of Melbourne research team with the prototype of the Medihood they developed.
In the first year of the pandemic, a multidisciplinary team of world-leading experts led by the University of Melbourne created a groundbreaking patient isolation hood for Western Health.
The patient isolation hood – now called the Medihood – is an Australian developed technology that protects healthcare workers and nearby patients from COVID-19 and other infectious respiratory diseases, by containing and filtering the infectious air expired by a patient.
Its successful development was made possible with funding from Round 3 of MTPConnect’s Biomedical Translation Bridge (BTB) program, an initiative of the Medical Research Future Fund and industry contributions. Round three of BTB specifically targeted COVID-19 projects, such as medical devices, to achieve an impact in less than 12-months. The project was supported by BTB venture partner Medical Device Partnering Program (MDPP).
In 2020 as COVID-19 cases surged, the University of Melbourne (UoM) brought together a multidisciplinary team of world-leading fluid dynamicists, clinicians and aerosol chemists with the engineering and aerosol science expertise necessary to develop the Medihood. The team was led by Professor Jason Monty and Ivan Marusic, both engineers and internationally recognised experts on fluid dynamics with specific expertise in aerosol transport.
UoM also worked in collaboration with Western Health (WH) through Associate Professor Forbes McGain, an ICU physician and anaesthetist, and colleagues to develop research infrastructure and conduct preliminary clinical trials to validate the Medihood.
The first demonstration of the early prototype was at Footscray and Sunshine Hospitals, and the device was trialed during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria for usability, nurse acceptance and comfort with patients at Western Health.
The Clinical Trial was concluded with 100 patients at the end of December 2021, with the early indication showing the Medihood reduced the aerosol exposure significantly.
The Medihood is the first commercially available, unsealed, portable and scalable personal isolation solution. It is now in use in major metro and regional hospitals across Australia including Melbourne, Perth, Alice Springs, and Mildura.
Melbourne based flag manufacturer Evan Evans – established in 1877 and co-designer of the Australian flag in 1901 – came on board as UoM’s product development and commercialisation partner, convinced of the potential of the product and the manufacturing efficiencies that it could achieve by re-purposing its flag making technology to manufacture the Medihood.
The BTB funding award enabled the successful collaboration between the University of Melbourne, Western Health and Evan Evans to bring the Medihood to market within 12 months.
The funding enabled further research by UoM towards optimising patient comfort and improving, in collaboration with the Doherty Institute and Western Health, a reduction in the spread of disease-carrying aerosols and droplets.
It also allowed Evan Evans to improve the device with respect to infection control, durability, ease-of-use, and design for manufacturing.
Moreover, the BTB program provided commercialisation expertise and financial support to help Evan Evans develop the quality management system required to manufacture a medical device. Evan Evans has now licensed the rights from UoM to manufacture and distribute the product and has appointed dedicated sales and marketing staff.
Read on for the full case study to find out how many hospitals around Australia are now using the Medihood and why it is giving healthcare workers and patients peace of mind.