Brazilian Frugal Ventilators to Tackle COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused immediate overburden to healthcare systems and initiated a race in search for means to prevent and treat the disease. Among the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 are the lack of equipment and technologies to attend all patients, especially in resource-constrained contexts of emerging and developing countries. Fast and frugal innovations were developed, especially for attending regions where the healthcare system was in critical condition. This paper analyses the case of the ventilator called INSPIRE, designed to tackle COVID-19 in Brazil. It was built utilizing the frugal innovations perspective and the narrative of one of the participant institutions (Federal Institute of Sao Paulo - IFSP). The following dimensions of frugal innovations: affordability, adaptability, accessibility, value proposition and sustainability. To conclude, a comparison is made with other initiatives across the country which revealed that although the development teams had not previous knowledge about frugal innovation, the projects helped creating a collaborative network of different institutions aiming to reach the same goal. Now that these networks are in place and advancing to develop other innovative products, there is a need to establish a framework for developing frugal innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]