jsoares
commented
4 years ago Ventilators are a little outside of our main areas of expertise but we are funding an open ventilator project in the developing world, RespiraWorks, as well as some related testing and monitoring modules.
Simplified low cost ventilator for developing countries
Problem statement
COVID-19 is here to stay, even with a vaccine (which which will take some time) the problem can't be solved overnight. Looking at the shortages of ventilators particularly in the developing world, there is an apparent need for a robust, low cost ventilator with reduced functionality tailored for treatment of COVID-19. This device must be designed safety and simply using readily available components and manufacturing processes to enable production to be scaled as quickly as possible.
State of the Art
Existing ventilators are of course already in production with relevant approvals however their components are scarcely available in pandemic situations and these devices will never be affordable for developing countries even once supply has caught up with demand.
Within the broad Research Ecosystem
A ranking of open source emergency ventilators can be found in this link: https://github.com/PubInv/covid19-vent-list
There are many great teams out there working on different open source ventilator designs, which is a great things for the following reasons:
Known shortcomings of existing solutions
Many different things to consider here, more than is practical to list, but very few new emergency ventilator projects are complete and everybody still has lots to learn. To get an appreciation of the challenges involved please see the section below titled "What defines a complete solution".
Solving this Open Problem
What is the impact?
The potential for saving lives is fueling these projects.
What defines a complete successful solution?
Depending on country/region there will be different regulations to meet for an emergency ventilator for COVID treatment. UK and US examples are below:
Additionally, continuous advice must be taken from a suitability qualified medical professional, a QR-RA expert to guide the project through medical regulations and a manufacturer must be used with existing ISO13485 or equivalent quality standard accreditation.
Safety considerations for COVID treatment:
Existing Conversations/Threads
VentCon - The open source ventilator conference. Slides found here: https://www.pubinv.org/wp-content/uploads/Vent-con-2020-Master-Program-Deck.pdf Video recording of conference here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uwVM-0a8nY