Dassault Systèmes, Aden Group to set up Akila Care hospital for Covid-19

Dassault Systèmes recently collaborated with the Aden Group to develop a ready-to-use, turnkey hospital solution, the Akila Care. Quickly deployable and easily maintained, this hospital is meant for Covid-19 patients.

Wait, this is yet a hospital story, right? You may ask! Well, there was this hospital built in 14 days, in Wuhan, China!

Yes, the modular Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China, was created with “China Speed,” surprising the world with its 14-day construction. Perhaps, as many Indians should read this story.

Here, Deepak NG, MD, India, Dassault Systèmes, tells us more about this setup. Excerpts:

DQ: Elaborate on the collaboration of Dassault Systèmes with the Aden Group.

Deepak NG: Dassault Systèmes and Aden Group, one of Asia’s largest integrated facility management companies, announced their intent to collaborate on the development of a turnkey, ready-to-use infectious disease hospital solution, Akila Care.

It can be quickly deployed and easily maintained in countries severely impacted by COVID-19 and urgently in need of high quality medical facilities. This new initiative comes in light of the successful world premiere of the Wuhan hospital experience that was set up in a few days!

The two companies are working together to develop new hospital engineering, construction and operations processes by leveraging Dassault Systèmes’ 3DEXPERIENCE platform and Aden Group’s Akila Care smart and connected hospital concept.

The solution relies on a virtual collaborative environment for the design, simulation and development of hospitals that can be built and operational within 100 days and remain operational for many years, as well as for optimizing their operations and maintenance throughout their entire lifecycle.

As part of the collaboration, the two companies plan to assemble a consortium of companies specialized in medical equipment, engineering and construction to offer the solution to countries needing it most.

DQ: Are there any plans to build similar hospitals in India?

Deepak NG: Given the need for a rapid response in building a hospital, we, at Dassault Systemes are on alert on a global scale to answer requests, which could come their way to help create safer healthcare facilities, life environments (temporary, retrofitted, or permanent), and life-saving machines like ventilators.

We have tested our SIMULIA CFD/fluids solutions and done our due diligence to validate our results in both, France and China. We can simulate the spread of water droplets that could carry a virus pathogen from a sneeze/cough. We also have the ability to virtually simulate particle transmission paths in various environments (hospital rooms, offices, vehicles, aircraft, etc.).

Our solutions are available on the cloud for easy, remote access to our products and high-performance computing hardware. Our teams have the ability to engage immediately on these projects in these challenging times of social distancing and self-shelter. We are ready to support similar hospitals project in India in case of requests coming to us.

DQ: Elaborate on the virtual collaborative environment for the hospital. What role will be played by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform?

Deepak NG: Once developed, the hospital solution would provide a virtual collaborative environment in which employees and suppliers are invited to use a virtual twin of a hospital to optimize space planning, module design, negative pressure isolation rooms and other features, simulate manufacturing and equipment, and train for its construction.

After the hospital is built, the solution will be used for digital asset management by connecting the facility with state-of-the art medical equipment to monitor digitalized hygiene procedures and hospital floor robots.

Messaging, visualization, project management, the cloud -- all of these things enable the continuous product development, collaborative engineering and scientific collaboration enabled by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. In a sense, our customers (many of whom are multinational, multicity, multipartner) are already a step ahead because of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

DQ: Tell us about how simulating the virus contamination and diffusion within the Leishenshan hospital’s ventilation system has worked for you?

Deepak NG: We recently announced that we are working with China’s Central-South Architectural Design Institute (CSADI) to support the simulation and evaluation of virus dispersal in the confined environment of Leishenshan Hospital in Wuhan, China.

The largest hospital for infectious diseases and COVID-19 patients, the modular Leishenshan Hospital, was created with “China Speed,” surprising the world with its 14-day construction. CSADI and Dassault Systèmes are using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform’s simulation capabilities to simulate virus contamination and diffusion within the hospital’s ventilation system and to counteract the negative effects from unplanned ventilation risks.

As a strategic partner of Dassault Systèmes in China, CSADI undertook the design of Leishenshan Hospital. Avoiding contamination of nearby environments is a key consideration for CSADI, especially the minimization of cross-infection in the hospital and any impacts on external communities, crowds and surroundings.

To this end, Dassault Systèmes has donated SIMULIA XFlow software, powered by the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, to CSADI to simulate indoor and outdoor fluids, virus dispersal in ventilation systems, as well as other projects within Leishenshan Hospital.