New ventilator gets us ready for a second or third wave of coronavirus

The hospital ventilator is at an intersection: it is complicated, expensive and scarce. The Spiro Wave ventilator, from an ad hoc team of manufacturers, inventors, and health professionals, tries to solve these logistical problems by moving ventilators to a different location.

Developed by Emergency Ventilator Response of the New York-based consortiumThis is what the Spiro Wave looks like: a robot that operates a manual balloon-style resuscitator by mounting it in a frame with software, sensors and actuators. This turns a simple bag into one that automatically manages:

• How big a breath is
• How often are these breaths pumped in?
• How much time for the patient to exhale each breath naturally
• How much pressure do you have to exert?

And all this without a human health care worker being impractical to a patient’s breathing apparatus over a long period of time. About 30% of people who enter a hospital with COVID-19 need mechanical breathing support.

The Spiro Wave was inspired by First work at MIT on the so-called E-Vent Demonstration of the core concept of automating a manual breathing bag. It was a direct response to the lack of ventilators in Italy.

The Spiro Wave is not intended to replace full-fledged hospital ventilation devices, but to support patients who do not need the most modern machines and to release these top machines for the most critical patients. Spiro Wave can now be used under an FDA emergency approval if the device is working towards it 510 (k) FDA review that would speed up his final approval.

The device will cost approximately $ 3,300 because the first 3,000 units are to be built in Long Island and prioritized for use in urban hospitals in New York. The initial $ 10 million to fund this run will be drawn by the New York City Economic Development Council. As other companies go online to manufacture Spiro Waves under a free open source license, the cost is expected to drop to $ 2,500 or less, far from the $ 30,000 price for a fully-featured ventilator.

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New ventilator prepares us for a second or third wave …

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Project leader Scott Cohen says the entire project could have collapsed due to the lack of an $ 8 piece called the pressure differential sensor. Procuring these products proved difficult at a time when just-in-time manufacturing left little inventory on the shelves, which is hampered by much of the global supply chain.

The Emergency fan consortium The Spiro Wave is mainly composed of New York companies that directly recognized the need for their development: The Newlab Tech Incubator is located in Brooklyn Navy Yard, 10XBeta is a fast product development company in Brooklyn and Long Island Boyce Technologies is better known for manufacturing assistant kiosks You look around subway stations. However, the name Spiro Wave comes from San Francisco, where the brand agency was active Frog Design synthesized it from the Latin “respiro”, which means breathing.

The ventilator crisis has eased, and some Suggestion that ventilators in COVID-19 patients were overused, but Spiro Wave developers say the problem is too narrow. “It is naive for us to believe that something like this cannot happen again sooner or later,” said Scott Cohen, co-founder of Newlab. “So why not be careful and prepare yourself at this point?” Dr. Mitchell Katz, CEO of New York City Health and Hospitals, predicts that “there will likely be a second and third wave of coronaviruses and these waves could occur with influenza. As bad as it was in New York, the coronavirus was just beginning the flu season is mostly over. ”

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a doctor or other qualified healthcare provider if you have any questions about an illness or health goals.