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Medicine The Almighty Buck United States

MIT Team Shares New $500 Emergency Ventilator Design With the Public (interestingengineering.com) 107

Posted by BeauHD from the race-to-save-lives dept.
A group of MIT scientists has created an emergency ventilator, which is affordable, and easily made using regular hospital devices. Interesting Engineering reports: A team of volunteers, scientists, physicians, and computer scientists at MIT known as E-Vent put their heads together three weeks ago to revive a 10-year-old ventilator project. The end result is a ventilator design that's affordable and easily replicated. The total cost of the device for the different parts is between $400 to $500, and the team plans on sharing their design online on their website so that manufacturers and companies can recreate the lifesaving device for hospitals around the world.

The device's main part already exists in most hospitals' inventory: Ambu resuscitation bags. Usually, these are manually operated by emergency technicians or medical professionals to keep the patient breathing until they are hooked up to a ventilator. The team at MIT has adapted the Ambu bags by attaching them to an automated mechanism that automatically pumps the bag with air in the same manner if a human were handling it. This method would alleviate the use of a person standing day and night by a patient's bedside -- something that's not currently possible in hospitals that are reaching over-capacity because of the rapidly spreading coronavirus -- and keep them breathing long enough to then be strapped to a proper ICU ventilator. There's currently no exact date for when the prototype info will be shared for all to use, but the team members have stated that they eventually want to secure the FDA approvals.
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MIT Team Shares New $500 Emergency Ventilator Design With the Public More

MIT Team Shares New $500 Emergency Ventilator Design With the Public

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  • Sounds a little like using crazy glue on a stab wound. Way better than nothing, but oh man your odds aren't good.

    • It is way too expensive, complex and impossible to build if you're already suffocating. Also, access to the design requires registration, leaving a trail and the door open for the US to come and kidnap ... errr I mean get your government to extradite you for "IP" "violations" later.

      Here is a better, simpler, fully-operational design that you can build with one hand only, which costs less than 50 bucks and the only thing you'll ever see from the inventor is his picture to the right:
      https://i.imgur.com/dxOlyl [imgur.com]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gl4ss ( 559668 )

        that's pretty good.
        could be used with the bag too I guess.

        but.. NoT MedIcAL QUaLiTY REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

        not sure I can drill two pieces of wood together with one hand only though.

        • Please, use two clamps - one to hold them together and the other to fix them to a table or something :)

          Jokes aside, I guess the problem with using/building one of these contraptions, even at "maydical qualitay" is not the actual device, but the know-how of how to use it.

          Without a trained doctor to treat you before you get so bad you need one of these, without them determine you actually need it, installing it and watching you over while you suffer there... With or without one your chances are slim.

          This is o

    • I looked at the design, not bad for the Freshmen class. Now, lets try a design that takes a $25 spool of PLA, and a $25 spool of Flexible PLA building with a Creality cr10s 300. Usage is for 3 weeks, then recycle it to build another. And just to motivate the Sophomore class; we need this 60 days ago. Think, "its not for you, its for your Parents and Grand Parents that have days left." I am not joking, but I am smiling in grim irony.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shaitan ( 22585 )

        Oh and here is a thought, toss a token disclaimer about no claims of fitness for any medical usage and not yet evaluated by the FDA.

        THEN PUBLISH THE DAMN PLANS

        • Nope, that time has passed. Now we are forced to do PIG,(Production If Good) Manufacturing. It is time for smart asses to get to work. I hear that there is a "go fund me" type project to do just this. I do not know the link, but I will find it today. if anyone knows it, post it here.

          welcome to this Corona-virus Paradise, apologies to Coolio
          • I found the answer, YouTube. The face mask appears to be an excellent solution for folks to NOT transmit the critter to others, that an a face mask solution look good. There appears to be a Ventilator solution by a kid doctor, that could be done with PVC pipes. I am thinking of just a PVC solution so that the stuff when no longer useful can be sterilized, ground up and used to print something different.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dcw3 ( 649211 )

      Actually, crazy gluing a wound is not all that crazy. My daughter is an example of this, when she was working at a nearby resort while home for the summer from college, she sliced her palm open working in the kitchen. They glued the gash (about 2 inches) together. I met her at the ER, where the doc looked it over and after a tetanus shot, told us they'd done a good job with the glue and we were done.

      From the Mayo Clinic:
      Skin adhesive is an alternative that can be as effective as stitches when used on the

  • "One day it's like a miracle, it will disappear." (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    January20: I know more about viruses than anyone."
    January 22: "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. It's going to be just fine."
    February 2: "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China."
    February 24: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA⦠Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"
    February 25: "CDC and my Administration are doing a GREAT job of handling Coronavirus."
    February 25: "I think that's a problem that's going to go awayâ

    • So what? So was everyone. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The governor of NYC was urging people to party something like a week before lockdown.

      Nancy Pelosi was telling people to come out to Chinatown in SF at the end of February. After Trump had issued a ban on travel from China... Trump may have not shut things down immediately but he was way ahead of the curve compared to most politicians. In large part because he actually listens to experts.

      If we'd had any other president (R or D) the only jobs left at this point would be crematorium operators.

      • Chinatown was probably the safest place to eat in February. Asians start wearing masks at the *rumor* of a virus. anyway it was WHO and Trump's defunded CDC that dropped the ball on this one. Almost willful incompetence from the top all the way down.

        • It wasn't defunded, care to try again?

          https://www.factcheck.org/2020... [factcheck.org]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by bobs666 ( 146801 )

          This Parent is completely off topic.

          But now that's it's here. It is the normal fake news that the Democrats have been spreading ever since the first second a real executive was elected to the executive branch. We do not need the politicians in the executive branch, as they are running amuck in the House of representatives.

          Just look at the last bailout bill for $2.2 Trillion, that only made it off the Hill as a $6.2 Trillion dollar bill. Where did the extra $4 Trillion dollars go? Want to bet alot we

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

        Trump may have not shut things down immediately but he was way ahead of the curve compared to most politicians. In large part because he actually listens to experts.

        You had me until the steaming pile of bullshit bolded above. Trump doesn't listen to anyone, he believes he is the smartest guy in the room, and further believes that he's smarter than anyone else on literally EVERY topic. You need look no further than his staff turnover to see that.

        I will agree that way too much is lost in the "orange man bad!" screaming from various parties, and the media's breathless reporting of such, and that Trump HAS made more positive moves than he's given credit for. But he's al

  • haha!! Why the Playstation controller??
  • Interesting ad hoc use of everyday parts in the photo posted in the article.

    • The electronics, controller included, are all what you'd find in FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) for high school aged kids.

      They grey computer shown in one of the shots is a NI roboRIO. Not sure how they're saying this thing costs $500 though since a roboRIO is like $2k, though FRC teams get them at a discount of around $500 each.

      There's a PDP (Power Distribution Panel) from FRC in the pictures too.

      The article got posted to our local FRC Slack channel to show the kids that the stuff they're using isn't jus

  • $500? Try $125... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @09:07PM (#59895290)

    Figures a bunch 'o fancy-boys from MIT would design some super expensive ventilator... well a Florida Man has made one with common hardware parts [youtube.com] for $125!

    Ok it's not exactly the Florida Man we are used to, faculty from University of Florida/UF Health designed it...

    Joking aside it's great so much ingenuity is being focused on this space in such a short timeframe, as the more we can make by any means may make a huge difference.

    • Is he giving away the design?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jrumney ( 197329 )

      it also appears to be identical to the design released by Leitat Technological Centre in Spain last week.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/av/te... [bbc.com]

      • Have you watched the two videos? They look totally different, and the Florida one uses no 3D printed parts the link you posted had some 3D printing parts), just parts they could get from Home Depot.

        The other one is also probably very nice, not sure how price compares. Time wise the Home Depot solution is probably faster, they say if you have the parts it's fitted minutes to assemble, that BBC link one is probably a good day or two of 3D printing.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • I think oil is a much bigger problem than you imagine. I seem to recall hearing that any sort of oil in the air path of a ventilator is a major no-no - I think it's less toxicity, than having an oil film build up on the surface of the lungs, preventing oxygen transport and suffocating the patient despite good air flow. I only half-remember it though, so I could be totally wrong.

        It would also be much more expensive, and I don't think there's any way to adjust the displacement volume for the size of the pat

    • Very nice. Assuming it actually works effectively without introducing new problems, this looks to be exactly the sort of fast and cheap device that could be mass-produced in short order in response to a major pandemic, without worrying about wasting a lot of money by overproducing them. Which makes a lot more sense that having warehouses filled with enough expensive ventilators to handle a once-a-century class pandemic. Just gotta keep enough extra on hand to buy you production time.

      Assuming of course it

    • showing that it's useful to shove the old obsolete junk back in the storeroom corner. you never know when junk parts are useful. a lesson for us all... don't toss anything. hide it from the Significant Other, though.

    • assuming that the hand pumped bag has a strong enough squeeze bulb that it comes back . . . a board over the bag so as not to rub, and a cam on an motor at 15-20rpm, would operate it, wouldn't it?

      (or a solenoid, though I suspect that the abrupt push/pull would change pressure too fast . . .\

      hawk

  • Pretty neat (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @09:19PM (#59895324)

    Using the Ambu resuscitation bag is a pretty good approach. Sure, you can make something with plumbing parts. But now you've got to worry about sterilizing it. Not to mention problems that PVC cement outgassing might cause. The Ambu bag has already jumped through these hoops. All you need to do is squeeze it reliably and in a controllable manner. The DIY parts don't come in contact with the patient's air.

    • Once the PVC cement has cured it's a non-problem. We use it for potable water. You can make it go faster by using the primer. Using the ambu bag is still smart, though.

    • How long will these bags last in this application?

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        Good question. It probably has a lot to do with friction with whatever is squeezing them. Manual (hand) operation probably benefits from the fact that whoever is doing the squeezing is probably changing their grip and maybe even switching hands from time to time. I'd incorporate some rollers to grip the bag but allow it to shift around and spread the wear somewhat.

        Some of these bags are reusable (following proper cleaning) so I suspect that they are sturdy enough to last many hours or even days.

        • There is a limit to how many times someone can squeeze one of these bottles and some of these are disposable: intended as one-time use.

        • > so I suspect that they are sturdy enough to last many hours or even days.

          That could be a problem - I'm not sure how many days an average intensive care coronavirus patient will need a ventilator, but if each patient is burning through several bags you're going to need a LOT of bags, and I get the impression the bags are mostly an emergency backup to be used until a patient can be brought to a proper ventilator, so existing production lines might well not have the volume to keep up with the demand. (tho

  • As soon as they secure full indemnity for production and use of their ventilator. Absent that - releasing it, having someone make one, and having it fail opens them up to massive lawsuits.

    • Easy solution. Anyone who sues someone for using a ventilator which doesn't work perfectly in an emergency should go through mandatory castration and be sent to small uninhabited island to live out the rest of their miserable fucking lives.

  • He's only mostly dead (Score:5, Funny)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @09:23PM (#59895334)

    "He is only MOSTLY dead. Not ALL dead. You can bring them back to life if they are only MOSTLY dead. Now, give me that stick..."

    If bellows were good enough for Miracle Max, they're good enough for anyone without health insurance. /s

  • Ventilator technicians on the critical path (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Latent Heat ( 558884 ) on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @09:23PM (#59895338)

    People have ventilator fixation.

    I really don't think the supply of ventilators is the problem. Rather, it is the supply of ventilator techs, critical care nurses and others to safely operate these ventilators with persons attached to them.

    I have read that once you go on a ventilator with the COVID-19 condition, your prognosis is pretty grim. If someone has some data or links or cites that the survival rate once you get to this point is above 50%, let me know.

    Otherwise, the ventilator offers slim hope to the ill and their families that a person may pull through. But from a big picture public health perspective, the availability or non-availability is not going to change the survival statistics.

    A lot of people don't want to spend their last days and hours in medical torture. A lot of people don't "want to be hooked up to tubes." Well, a ventilator is "one of those tubes" to think about in ones' Advanced Directive on how you want to "go."

    • Some have come off the ventilators. But yes agree mainly with your comment. Requires highly skilled care on a vent. As I understand it, you are kept essentially in a coma during the time you are on it. So specialized people both running the machine and keeping you knocked out. Already you are seeing memos from hospitals setting up the who gets care because most likely to survive. I cannot imagine being the ER docs and nurses who have to make these horrible decisions while working to exhaustion. They indeed

      • Re: (Score:1, Informative)

        by whoever57 ( 658626 )

        They indeed are the heroes in this time.

        ... and getting pay cuts due to unbridled capitalism and greed.
        https://www.sltrib.com/news/20... [sltrib.com]

      • Patients on a ventilator are not in coma but under sedation or general anesthesia (when sedation is not enough). This is how surgeries are done. The difference is that surgeries last hours while Covid-19 patients may be kept on a ventilator for days or even weeks. Source: anesthesiologist who does these things daily in a hospital. Agree with the rest of your comment.
    • That is precisely the problem raised in Norway when somebody came up with a similar design. It is the lack of qualified personnel which is the real problem.
    • Here are some stats [physiciansweekly.com].

      “What is the mortality rate for [COVID-19] patients who require mechanical ventilation?” and received answers ranging from 25% to 70% from people who have personal knowledge of outcomes in their hospitals.

      Of course we don't have good numbers yet, but even a 25% chance of survival is significantly better than a 0% chance.

      • From an individual standpoint, most of us offered, say, a cancer treatment offering a 25% changes of 1 year survival would "go for it."

        From a public health standpoint, especially the social goal of reducing the death rate, a 25% chance of survival is virtually worthless. Furthermore, by bringing patients into hospitals to go on ventilators, you are endangering doctors, nurses, techs and other healthcare workers, not matter what level of protective equipment they have.

        This also gives the lie to the cl

        • This also gives the lie to the claim that the "flattening the curve" is to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed.

          OK wow, you need to chill out a little bit lol.

  • Make sure you read the license, especially this part:

    the software is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement. in no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any claim, damages or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort or otherwise, arising from, out of or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.

  • Ventilators are expensive because of lawsuits (Score:5, Interesting)

    by I kan Spl ( 614759 ) on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @09:57PM (#59895460)

    It is awesome that a student group made a cheaper version. That cheaper version will likely save many lives if it goes into production. That said, realize that the engineering requirements for existing commercial units are much more stringent then what the engineering students had to work with. The commercial units have to do this due to lawsuits.

    Commercial units log their usage, amount of air in/out, start and end times, etc. Most modern ones upload those logs to an online chart. They constantly monitor the flow of air during use, and sound an alarm if it fails. They self test the air monitor during use, and fire an alarm if failed. They also can run off a backup battery for 6-10 hours, depending on the model.

    These are required due to people suing the pants off hospitals if a ventilator fails, as someone that needs one won't live very long if it fails.

    It isn't like the engineers at the medical supply companies couldn't make a cheaper version. They just couldn't make a cheaper version that also met all the requirements put out by the legal department at the hospitals.

    • If a ventilator was to fail, doctors might have minutes to respond before the patient becomes critical. Under normal circumstances you would require that only a overengineered, highly tested piece of equipment be used for such a critical task. Of course we are not living under normal conditions. If we can't acquire proper ventilators a hacked up version might still be better than nothing.
      • There are all sorts of possible scenarios, maybe there is something to be said for making politicians desperate enough to do more to get real machines made rather than offerring them too easy a way out with a compromise solution.

  • Seems like it would do more harm than good (Score:5, Informative)

    by blockhouse ( 42351 ) on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @10:03PM (#59895480)

    Based on what I've read about it, this device does not permit the respiratory tech to control important variables, like tidal volume, FiO2, PEEP, etc. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), which is the indication for mechanical ventilation in the majority of critical COVID cases, require ventilator settings to be very finely tuned. Just having what amounts to bellows that forces air into the lungs is not helpful. If you burst a patient's lungs, you haven't done them any favors.

    I would decline to be ventilated with this device.

    • I would decline to be ventilated with this device.

      No you wouldn't. Not when faced with the alternative. Burst lung? Sounds fantastic compared to drowning in your own bodily fluids. ARDS is a horrible way to go, and you'll be begging a doctor to strap anything to your face.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Seems like it would do more harm than good (Score:4, Interesting)

      by az-saguaro ( 1231754 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @03:57AM (#59896184)

      There is nothing wrong with off the shelf engineering if it gets the job done. Everything you just said could be done with garage parts. Gas mix? Run two lines, one oxygen, one medical air, with a valves to regulate the mix. Solved. Peep? Instead of a circular cam, shape its border to maintain sustained compression over x degrees of the duty cycle. Tidal volume? Use a series of holes on the cam to adapt to the motor spindle. The closer the hole is to the enter of the cam, the less eccentric the cam, the less compression on the bag, the lower the tidal volume. Repost the axle toward the periphery, and tidal volume goes up. A threaded bolt, a hex nut, and a wing nut would allow changeover within 15 seconds, dropping just 2-3 breaths during the adjustment. Worried that the non-circular cam would sustain inspiratory phase but at the expense of air bleed with exponential drop through the RC of the plumbing? Use a scuba regulator or something like that to maintain peak air pressures from the source.

      Modern ventilators have all kinds of electronic bells and whistles, additional sensors and displays, but at their heart they mostly work no differently than ventilators from the 1970's, mainly just bellows to move air at an adjustable rate and volume. In catastrophe mode where units are needed quickly and cheaply, the ideas demonstrated in these articles will work just fine.

  • I'm gonna post this on every thread (Score:4, Informative)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday March 31, 2020 @10:31PM (#59895536)
    The government has known since Bush Jr that a pandemic was coming and we were critically short of ventilators. A plan was put in place during the Obama administration to create a national stockpile. The government would buy them for $3k/each from a medical supply company.

    One of the larger medical supply companies, who sells them for $10k/each, didn't like that. They bought out the smaller company and shelved the project [threadreaderapp.com]

    In addition, we could have already had a vaccine but nobody wanted to pay for it. [youtube.com]

    All of this was completely avoidable, but doing so would have (very marginally) dipped into profits. There's always money to bail out billionaires, but never to prevent disaster for you and me. Remember that in November. And remember that during the Democratic primaries in June. Remember who was VP when that plan was shelved, and who's been president for 3 years now...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Orange man bad GUUYS. ORANGE MAN BAD.

      You might ask slightly more important questions like: why is the WHO lead by a corrupt puppet of a corrupt regime in Ethiopia that is in the pocket of China. A WHO that lies, covers up and apologies for China's despicable behaviour.

      Why did the Chinese lie about this virus while hoovering up ventilators in Australia, Europe and the US.

      but no... let's blame Cheeto Hitler.

      Orange man bad, guys!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kyrsjo ( 2420192 )

        Yes. Orange man very, very, very bad. Orange man the very terriblest. Orange man has the best terribleness. Get it?

        Do not vote for orange man later this year, or it will get even worse the next four years.

    • Re: I'm gonna post this on every thread (Score:4, Insightful)

      by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @07:01AM (#59896484) Journal

      While this is the perfect time to be attacking each other over politics (/sarcasm, in case you missed it)...the company that said they didn't want to go forward was Covidian, and the year was 2014.

      Do the math and tell me what administration was in power in 2014? Who signed off on this abandonment of the nation's stockpile of critical equipment?

      • I said they've known since Bush jr

        The Democrats, particularly the Establishment Dems (e.g. the pro-corporate ones like Pelosi & Schumer & Biden) are just as much to blame. I might give the lefties like Bernie a pass because there's only so much one cranky old man can do (google "Bernie Sanders Amendment King"). You can count the number of those lefties in the House & Senate on one hand.

        Obama was a terrible president. Yeah, it could have been worse (I would argue McCain & Romney would

  • Once you get put on a ventilator you're pretty fucked already and probability of survival is pretty low. All the while we have a working therapeutic: hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, used in close to a dozen countries already, including those hardest hit, to _prevent people from needing_ the ventilator in the first place.

    • All the while we have a working therapeutic: hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, used in close to a dozen countries already

      How well does it work? Last I checked, clinical studies were in progress, but don't have data yet. They might not work at all.

    • Dude, these are already part of the standard treatment, at least over here in the Netherlands, and for a small minority they help. We still get a lot of casualties.

      They also use antivirals. These too are not very effective.

      It's more effective than prayer/nothing though. But nowhere near a cure. Basically we don't have anything except reducing the load on your body and hope it's able to survive pretty much on its own.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by melted ( 227442 )

        Needs to be given early on. It's like people didn't read the Raoult paper and they're deliberately fucking it up. Needs to be given as a prophylaxis for healthcare workers, too. A death of a healthcare worker is much worse than the death of a patient, since in a shortage situation it leads to more patient deaths. Also needs to be given to those who successfully fought off C19 to rapidly reduce viral load and ability to infect.

    • Ding Ding Correct. You can also use CPAP machines but the hospitals don't like the because if the mask is not a good seal - it will spread droplets, so the expensive solution is used. Russia has a better solution - tablets first - no mucking around. One hillbilly idea is a bicycle pump or camping pump driven by linear motor, such as car window winder, spacing the microswitches at the right distance. Looking at the picture a padded scissor mechanism from a car window could drive the bag. with a two transisto

    • I think you're asking the question wrong. Instead ask : how many people die before they need a ventilator? My guess is very few. So ventilator availability directly impacts the survival rate. Especially until we have a way to help them avoid reaching that point.

      >All the while we have a working therapeutic: hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin
      Do we though? Las I heard it had just gotten FDA approval for use on this *despite* the fact that there's scant evidence that it actually helps. So that could v

  • So many people already showed the same type of device, even ones with much fewer parts and cheaper... Here in the netherlands we've seen 3 such devices having been published the last 2 weeks..
  • You have provided me a good piece of information! Well, it is not complete but I think it is good for me to start :) FL Studio 2020 Crack [topkeygen.com]
  • It was $100 when reported elsewhere a few days ago.

  • There's lots of makeshift ventilator stories. (Score:3)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Wednesday April 01, 2020 @07:49AM (#59896594) Homepage Journal

    They're inspirational, but they usually seem to be solving the wrong problem. Just look at the thing, and imagine doctors in New York trying to scrounge parts to build 10,000 of them.

    What we need are proper ventilators that can be rapidly manufactured on a massive scale, like the one GM is tooling up to produce.

  • https://www.propublica.org/art... [propublica.org]

    Taxpayers Paid Millions to Design a Low-Cost Ventilator for a Pandemic. Instead, the Company Is Selling Versions of It Overseas.
    As coronavirus sweeps the globe, there is not a single Trilogy Evo Universal ventilator — developed with government funds — in the U.S. stockpile. Meanwhile, Royal Philips N.V. has sold higher-priced versions to clients around the world.

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