CURA: Shipping a COVID-19 Innovative Solution

COVID-19 hit Ecuador in early March. Critical-care hospitals were rapidly overcrowded and the death toll was staggering; the spine-chilling situation pushed me to think of ways to help. While I was Mayor of Quito, I actively participated in a number of international networks; when I left office, I had the privilege of continuing my involvement—learning, brainstorming, and exchanging ideas and experiences with some of the most brilliant minds on how to solve the world’s most pressing issues (including this pandemic). When I came across a fascinating project developed by the world-renowned Carlo Ratti, Director of MIT’s SENSEable City Laboratory, with whom I had the honor to participate in several policy-making discussions and spaces, I knew I had to connect him with Ecuador’s national government.

An amazing team of engineers, architects, medical doctors, and designers from Carlo Ratti Associati partnered with MIT’s SENSEable City Lab to develop CURA (Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments). CURA are repurposed, 20-foot shipping containers that address the shortage of intensive care units (ICUs) to treat COVID-19 patients. Each container holds a two-bed ICU; it is manufactured and equipped within a few days and can be assembled and disassembled rapidly. CURA have hospital-like standards with bio-containment (management practices that prevent the spread of infectious agents). They can be shipped anywhere and deployed within a few hours, placed outside of hospitals or used to create self-standing field hospitals of varying sizes. Moreover, since these units are so easy to relocate, they are a feasible solution for impoverished, hard-to-reach urban areas, including informal settlements, that lack any kind of intensive care facilities. The cost is an additional advantage. Each unit can be produced at around a “third of the pre-bed cost of an emergency prefabricated hospital.”

Engagement with meaningful international platforms is especially powerful and important in times of unprecedented global crises like COVID-19, when smart ideas and innovation-sharing can save thousands of lives. In a matter of days, Ecuador will have its first 50 CURA pods up and running and, soon, the country could even install its first production line.

Mauricio Rodas is Former Mayor of Quito and Visiting Scholar at Perry World House, Penn IUR, and the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

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