Jean-Jacques Degroof enjoyed a successful career in the financial services industry before spending decades as an academic instructor and venture investor. An active philanthropist, Jean-Jacques Degroof currently drives innovative solutions that improve the well-being of the elderly through his own philanthropic entity and his involvement with the Ageing Brain Initiative at the Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT).

A recent innovation in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic was developed by an MIT professor of architecture named Carlo Ratti. To address the influx of affiliated patients that challenged Italy’s healthcare system capacity, Mr. Ratti modified shipping containers into two bed intensive care units.

The converted shipping containers, known as Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments (CURA), cost a fraction of the price of other healthcare options and offer a transportable solution to fighting COVID-19. In addition to allowing rapid deployment to hard hit areas, the pods offer flexibility in that they work as standalone units or interconnected clusters. Each unit includes negative air pressure extractors and all medical features of a traditional intensive care unit.

For more information on CURA, visit https://curapods.org/.