Abhijeet Ghavalkar
Co-Founder & CEO at Prana Medical
Mr. Abhijeet Ghavalkar
Achiever's Success Story
Access to affordable healthcare vertical without compromising crucial elements
Abhi was born and raised in an Indian household in Oman where he lived for 17 years before moving to the UK to pursue a career in professional football. He currently lives in California where he’s enrolled in UC Berkeley’s inaugural Master of Design program. Abhi’s mission is to design and deploy remarkable products and services in the healthcare vertical that everyday people can afford and access readily without compromising quality, safety, or customer experience. It was with this vision that he co-founded Prana Medical in 2020 with his friend Zach Mudge, whom he met at Loughborough University in the UK where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Product Design Engineering.
Fewer than 2,000 working ventilators serve hundreds of millions of people in 41 countries across Africa, compared to over 170,000 in the US alone. As the co-founder and CEO at Prana Medical, Abhi leads the design, development, and deployment of a medical device that allows up to four patients to share a single hospital ventilator. The device was inspired by a series of interviews with doctors and respiratory therapists in India, Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, Cambodia, and Mexico, where ventilators are a scarce commodity. Prana harnesses existing ventilator technology by simply plugging into the machine and supporting four patients using one device.
“After we spoke with Dr. Aidoo, an anesthesiology resident at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana, we were disheartened to hear that patients were turned away due to a lack of ventilators at the facility. These patients either return to the hospital needing critical medical intervention since their conditions escalate, or they end up losing their lives. If we can split ventilators at the preventative stage, we can avoid patients needing critical care and further straining hospital resources, which allows them to save lives.” said Abhi Ghavalkar.
Abhi has an optimistic outlook and aims to continue contributing to the fields of humanitarian design and social entrepreneurship through his business and design endeavours.
