Posted on 04/07/2020 5:43:36 PM PDT by NoLibZone
A team at MIT developed a ventilator that could be built with $100 dollars worth of parts — a fraction of the average $30,000 cost most machines take to manufacture, according to a report by SciTechDaily.
The innovative design of the machine relies upon a bag-valve resuscitator, a piece of equipment found in bulk at most hospitals to help patients breathe, the report said.
Ventilators are one of the most in-demand medical items at the moment amid a worldwide shortage due to the coronavirus.
The team, MIT E-Vent, which consists of doctors, engineers, and computer scientists, decided to fervently revisit the building of an emergency ventilator machine, which began as a project in an MIT class, SciTechDaily reports.
The bag-valve resuscitator, also known as an Ambu bag, is used by hand to pump air into the lungs of a patient, according to the report. The design of MIT E-vent's machine pumps the Ambu bag mechanically in order to run for days, since just a two-week period could require more than one million cycles of the machine.
While the team plans to publish the design online in order to contribute to a wide-scale ramp-up of the device's production in order to help the worldwide storage, they stressed that the design is not meant for anyone to build — it's intended for experienced clinical engineers to help expand manufacturing, according to the report.
MIT E-vent emphasized the technical nature of the machine, as it must be able to adjust the air and pressure given to a patient to fit their exact needs and must be relied upon to operate continuously since machine failure could be deadly, according to SciTechDaily.
The team is waiting to receive feedback from the US Food and Drug Administration,
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Cuomo and the DNC want to sell them.
I really doubt that $100 figure.
Wasn’t that an episode on MASH?
Yeah, a $100 ventilator will replace a $30,000 ventilator.
I’ve got some viruses to sell you.
This is gone down the memory hole.
I’ve seen pictures of this and the electronics are breadboards ICs and jumper wires, etc... Maybe not $100, but close. I prototyped test equipment for many years. More power to them.
Video here:
Prototype, but it has possibilities.
And waiting, waiting, still waiting,,,
We’re not going to have a problem with ventilators. We’ve got close to 200K available!
“Supply of mechanical ventilators in U.S. acute care hospitals: Based on a 2009 survey of AHA hospitals, U.S. acute care hospitals are estimated to own approximately 62,000 full-featured mechanical ventilators.10,11 Approximately 46% of these can be used to ventilate pediatric and neonatal patients. Additionally, some hospitals keep older models for emergency purposes. Older models, which are not full featured but may provide basic functions, add an additional 98,738 ventilators to the U.S. supply.10 The older devices include 22,976 noninvasive ventilators, 32,668 automatic resuscitators, and 8567 continuous positive airway pressure units.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) and other ventilator sources: The SNS has an estimated 12,700 ventilators for emergency deployment, according to recent public announcements from National Institutes of Health officials.12 These devices are also not full featured but offer basic ventilatory modes. In simulation testing they performed very well despite long-term storage.13 Accessing the SNS requires hospital administrators to request that state health officials ask for access to this equipment. SNS can deliver ventilators within 24-36 hours of the federal decision to deploy them. States may have their own ventilator stockpiles as well.14 Respiratory therapy departments also rent ventilators from local companies to meet either baseline and/or seasonal demand, further expanding their supply. Additionally, many modern anesthesia machines are capable of ventilating patients and can be used to increase hospitals’ surge capacity.
The addition of older hospital ventilators, SNS ventilators, and anesthesia machines increases the absolute number of ventilators to possibly above 200,000 units nationally. Many of the additional and older ventilators, however, may not be capable of sustained use or of adequately supporting patients with severe acute respiratory failure. Also, supplies for these ventilators may be unavailable due to interruptions in the international supply chain. Alternatively, ventilator manufacturers could be encouraged to rapidly produce modern full-featured ventilators to allow experienced clinicians to use supplemental ventilators that are familiar to them and can be readily incorporated into the hospital ventilator fleet and informatics systems. An analysis of the literature suggests, however, that U.S. hospitals could absorb a maximum of 26,000 to 56,000 additional ventilators at the peak of a national pandemic, as safe use of ventilators requires trained personnel.15”
https://sccm.org/Blog/March-2020/United-States-Resource-Availability-for-COVID-19
You're right. Maybe a $100 machine to replace a $300 machine. But not much more. I've seen 3D printer builds that use under $200 in parts that will do the job of maybe $1,000 ventilators. But no way replacing a sophisticated machine. The Tesla prototype looks promising, replicating features of very expensive machines, but the Tesla machine is also expensive (donated by Tesla). No way to do it for $100.
LOL...I was thinking some mechanical device would squish the bag, and that’s exactly what it is.
Servo-controlled motors, parts and microcontroller boards are a dime a dozen at Adafruit, SparkFun, Seeed Studio, Pololu Robotics, 1Sheeld and many other “maker” suppliers. Of course, none of that stuff is approved for medical use - fine for hobbyists and makers, but reliability will be a problem.
$29,900 for lawyers and lobbyists to grease the wheels of government certification.
But don’t medical grade ventilators have the capability to be timed to the patient’s breathing rhythm and deliver appropriate air volume? Ambu bags are one size fits all.
If made in China
Which means a great idea is dead in the water.
Maybe 30 years before they get around to considering approving it.
"Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it. They are one of the most unpleasant races in the Galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous. They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders – signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters."
“I’ve seen pictures of this and the electronics are breadboards ICs and jumper wires, etc... Maybe not $100, but close.”
As mentioned in the article the pressure and volume has to be carefully controlled plus it has to operate reliably for a million cycles. No way you build that for $100.
Ventilators damage the lungs. Much expertise is required to minimize this damage.
Grad student nerds work cheaper than Chinese, at least for the prototype.
Great. Now all you need to calculate is salaries, benefits, health-care costs for workers, taxes, factory building costs, inventory, equipment, maintenance, transport, medical liability insurance, sales, marketing, electricity and rent.
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