Emergency Ventilator Design and Fabrication

Hi, everyone. 

I’ve taken it on myself to adopt a role of convener/coordinator with respect to the gathering and dissemination of information regarding emergency ventilators amongst fabricators that traditionally serve the entertainment and cultural sectors. As we all know, ventilator shortages are the driver of many unnecessary deaths in this pandemic. Several firms (Tesla, Dyson, etc.) are working on this at the mass manufacturing scale. The goal is not to compete with those firms. The idea is to produce a “good enough” emergency ventilator that is safe and effective and can be rapidly produced by a variety of firms. These ventilators may not last longer than 60 days. That's OK. We don't need them forever. We need them right now.

I am not a medical professional. I am just a private citizen that knows a lot of people and firms that design and fabricate all manner of useful things at a high level of quality and at scale - and useful things are what we need right now. 

I am not the only person working on this issue, not by a longshot. I do not have a website set up yet (and may not choose to do so) so for now, social media and direct communication will be the venue for this, and linkedin seems to be the logical choice at this moment. If you are reading this elsewhere, join me at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/christopherpaulwilson/

I’m currently in discussion with several shops directly and am monitoring the progress of others indirectly. Others of you have heard from me already to either discuss designs, strategies, or supply chain issues. There are also a number of disparate designs in progress across the country (see links below). That is a good thing, because the inbound material supply chain is the likely bottleneck in virtually every design. So, if we eventually have 4 or 5 viable designs that can be fabricated, then we are “spreading the load” across the supply chain (rather than exhausting a particular specialty part). 

 Here’s what we know so far:

MIT is in the midst of round two of porcine testing this unit: https://e-vent.mit.edu/ We are hopeful that this can get into production ASAP. At least two shops (Bridgewater Studio in Chicago and Bednark Studio in Brooklyn) are monitoring progress and are ready to start fabricating parts immediately. This unit has several advantages. One disadvantage is that it is relatively complex.

The https://oxvent.org/ project is promising. The theory of operation is elegant and will likely be easier on the BVM than the e-vent, but only testing and time will bear that out. We are monitoring progress on that project. 

University of Florida is working on this unit: https://simulation.health.ufl.edu/technology-development/open-source-ventilator-project/ It differs significantly from the preceding two and is in the testing phase.

Maris Ensing at https://madsystems.com/ is working on a prototype that is targeted at sub-acute patients and also offers diversity of materials and theory of operation from the preceding two.

The Open Source Ventilator project https://opensourceventilator.ie/ is making a lot of progress. We are watching them closely as well.

The Key Issues at the moment:

- Tested designs (articulated, in part, above)

- Manufacturing capacity issues are all solvable. Suffice it to say that most custom fabricators have capacity right now. 

- Outbound distribution is solvable (Several options here, including the fact that FedEx and UPS seem to have continuity of service at the moment). All entertainment touring companies are also idle and eager for material to ship (Upstaging here in Illinois is one key example among many). 

- The Bottleneck will be materials (stepper motors, microcontrollers, valves etc.). This is the most crucial piece of the puzzle and will require a significant effort to solve. This is one reason why I am excited about a plurality of designs that (mostly) do not compete for the same materials.

- As a side note: The FDA Expanded Access for Medical Devices gives manufacturers broad legal protection, but you have to protect yourselves anyway!. I am not a lawyer. I am not giving anyone legal advice. I’m just saying that you need to protect yourselves.

- Lastly, we will need to make it known to various healthcare providers that these emergency ventilators exist and are ready for service.

Goal is ~500K units ASAP. Production on e-vent can commence ~2hours after testing in Boston is complete and we have a unified design that the MIT team feels is ready to go. Hoping that comes in the next 72 hours

If you have anything to offer to this effort (materials, 500K arduinos, coding skills, manufacturing capacity, supply chain capacity, design ideas - or completed and tested designs) please let me know. I am neither a vendor nor a client in this deal. I am NOT looking for any monetary gain. No money will pass through me as part of this effort. I am simply offering my services to help us all focus our efforts.

Please feel free to share this widely. Please feel free to text or email me or DM me (or comment on my linkedin page) if you have anything to share or add.

All best,

Chris