Researchers develop low-cost, easy-to-use emergency ventilator for
COVID-19 patients
Date:
June 24, 2020
Source:
University of California - San Diego
Summary:
A team of engineers and physicians has developed a low-cost,
easy-to-use emergency ventilator for COVID-19 patients that is
built around a ventilator bag usually found in ambulances.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A team of engineers and physicians at the University of California San
Diego has developed a low-cost, easy-to-use emergency ventilator for
COVID-19 patients that is built around a ventilator bag usually found
in ambulances.
==========================================================================
The team built an automated system around the bag and brought down the
cost of an emergency ventilator to just $500 per unit -- by comparison,
state of the art ventilators currently cost at least $50,000. The device's components can be rapidly fabricated and the ventilator can be assembled
in just 15 minutes. The device's electronics and sensors rely on a robust supply chain from fields not related to healthcare that are unlikely to
be affected by shortages.
The UCSD MADVent Mark V is also the only device offering
pressure-controlled ventilation equipped with alarms that can be adjusted
to signal that pressure is too low or too high. This is especially
important because excessive pressure can cause lung injury in COVID-19
patients that often experience rapid decreases in lung capacity as the
disease progresses.
Most ventilators measure the volume of air that is being pumped into the patient's lungs, which requires expensive airflow sensors. By contrast,
the UCSD MADVent Mark V measures pressure and uses that data to deduct
and control the airflow to the lungs. This was key to lowering the
device's price.
The team from tUC San Diego and industry partners will be seeking approval
for the device from the Food and Drug Administration. They detail their
work in an upcoming issue of Medical Devices and Sensors.
The device's plans and specifications are available at
http://MADVent.ucsd.edu/ "The MADVent can safely meet the diverse
requirements of COVID-19 patients because it can adjust over the broad
ranges of respiration parameters needed to treat acute respiratory
distress syndrome," said James Friend, a professor at the UC San Diego
Jacobs School of Engineering and one of the paper's two corresponding
authors. "The combination of off-the-shelf components and readily machined parts with mechanically driven pressure control makes our design both
low cost and rapidly manufacturable."
========================================================================== Researchers also wanted to make sure that the device could be used
by healthcare workers with limited experience with ventilators and no experience with this type of system, said Dr. Casper Petersen, co-author
of the study and a project scientist in the Department of Anesthesiology
at the UC San Diego School of Medicine. As a result, the MADVent Mark
V is safe to use, easy to assemble and easy to repair.
"This device could be a great option for use in situations where
materials are scarce, such as when the normal supply chain breaks down,
or in developing nations and hard-to-reach rural areas," Dr. Casper
Petersen said.
The device is not meant as a substitute for the highly complex ventilators
used in Intensive Care Units.
"Rather, our low-cost ventilator is meant to bridge an urgent gap in
situations of a large surge in patients where we may not have enough
life sustaining equipment," said Dr. Lonnie Petersen, an assistant
professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering, adjunct professor at UC
San Diego Health and the paper's other corresponding author. "Safety
is our main priority; while the MADVent is a low-tech and low-cost
device, it actually offers robust and patient tailored ventilationThis
really increases the safety for the patients suffering from the complex pulmonary infection and respiratory distress associated with COVID-19."
The UCSD MADVent Mark V The UC San Diego team built their device around
a ventilator bag usually found in ambulances and designed to be manually squeezed to help patients breathe. In the UCSD MADvent Mark V, a machined paddle squeezes the bag instead. The paddle is controlled by a series of pressure sensors to make sure the patients get the appropriate flow of
air into their lungs. The team deliberately integrated as many standard hospital items as possible into the design because those have already
undergone rigorous testing for safety, longevity and compatibility.
==========================================================================
To measure pressure, the researchers developed an algorithm that deduces
how much the bag was compressed based on how many turns the device's
motor has made and calculates the volume of air sent into the patient's
lungs as a result.
"The elasticity of the lungs changes very quickly, so it's important to
be able to sense the feedback from the patient," said Dr. Lonnie Petersen.
Researchers tested their system more than 200 times and for days on end on
a lung simulator, adhering to standards for the International Standards Organization and FDA guidelines to ensure it functioned correctly. The
device was also tested on a medical mannequin simulator.
One of the keys for cost savings was developing computer models
of the volume of air delivered through the ambulance bag when it is
compressed. This allowed researchers to do away with expensive airflow
sensors and the complex algorithms that control them.
The materials on the ventilator can be sanitized with conventional disinfectants such as 1.5% hydrogen peroxide and 70% ethanol.
"The system, in its current state of development, can easily accommodate
new modules that enable more sophisticated features, such as flow
monitoring, which can enable additional ventilation modes and provide healthcare operators more information regarding a patient's breathing,"
said Aditya Vasan, a Ph.D.
student in Friend's research group and the paper's first author.
Collaboration across disciplines A close collaboration between clinicians
and engineers enabled the team to put together a crude prototype in just
three days. They then spent countless hours refining and testing the ventilator. A lot of work went into making sure it was safe and could
be manufactured with simple parts at a large scale.
Engineers with the UC San Diego Qualcomm Institute Prototyping Lab
provided engineering design and fabrication support. Electrical engineer
Mark Stambaugh stepped in to work on the microcontroller and help adjust
the stroke cycle and control the speed and volume of the compressions
to help patients breathe.
Mechanical engineer Alex Grant provided design support and guidance.
Seed funding for the project came from several organizations: San
Diego-based Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., which develops
fields systems, platforms and products for national security and
communications needs; the US Office of Naval Research in the Department
of Defense; and the Catalyst initiative at the UC Institute for Global
Conflict and Cooperation.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
University_of_California_-_San_Diego. Original written by Ioana
Patringenaru. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Aditya Vasan, Reiley Weekes, William Connacher, Jeremy Sieker, Mark
Stambaugh, Preetham Suresh, Daniel E. Lee, William Mazzei, Eric
Schlaepfer, Theodore Vallejos, Johan Petersen, Sidney Merritt,
Lonnie Petersen, James Friend. MADVent: A low‐cost ventilator
for patients with COVID‐19. MEDICAL DEVICES & SENSORS, 2020;
DOI: 10.1002/ mds3.10106 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200624100041.htm
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