Global-NAMRIP Professors awarded MBE’s for personal respirator

Global-NAMRIP members Professor Paul Elkington and Professor Hywel Morgan have been awarded MBEs in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Medicine and Biomedical Engineering respectively.

The awards are in recognition of their work developing a personal respirator for frontline healthcare staff at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March when PPE was in short supply.

Paul and Hywel led a team of clinicians, engineers and industry partners who worked round the clock to develop a prototype of the respirator, known as PeRSo. Following testing within University Hospital Southampton, the prototype was taken into production in less than a month, with 1000’s now in use.

The PeRSo concept was published open-source and made available to other manufacturers and organisations around the world.

Development is continuing and the team are currently working on a compact lightweight version specifically designed to protect care-home residents and staff.