Analysis of the Unsuccessful Efforts to Design & Construct Invasive Mechanical COVID-19 Ventilators in Mexico: Did the Current BME Curricula at Mexican Universities Contribute to the Failure?

Abstract

Mexico was caught unprepared to deal with the current COVID-19 pandemic. One of the most egregious failures was the incapability to provide an additional 10,000 ventilators in order to cope with the excess demand. The Mexican government proposed a program for funding the development of these devices and over 100 designs were submitted but were of below standard quality and performance. Only three designs have been approved up to date.This work analyzes the failures from the point of view of the incapability to design, develop and test locally made ventilator designs, and asks whether the national university system, after a history of 48 years of producing thousands of Biomedical Engineering students in over 60 institutions has become incapable of delivering a design of a medical device of medium complexity.