Photo: Umoya
South African doctor and engineer Craig Parker blended those two sets of skills to help invent an innovative oxygen device for 'low resource settings' during the pandemic, and then created a social enterprise to make and share it. OxERA is an "all-in-one device using an oxygen accumulator bag, an anaesthetic mask and an adjustable mechanical peep valve (a spring-loaded valve against which the patient exhales) that is cost-effective and oxygen efficient". It has saved lives in remote Eastern Cape in South Africa and in Zimbabwe. Parker, who was born in Harare, worked as a mining engineer in South Africa and Zambia before becoming a physician South Africa. In December 2020, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority approved OxERA for emergency use. It is being made and distributed by Gabler Medical in Cape Town and Umoya, a "social enterprise model" company, and profit goes back into the project. Named South Africa's Rural Doctor of the Year for 2020, Parker says social enterprises offer a sustainable model for providing medical devices in the developing world.
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