Ham radio operators help design low cost ventilator

Very cool. Likely will be a bear to get approval to use such a thing in the US I imagine. These do not appear to be terribly difficult to make as a basic version, but probably hard to get safety guarantees.
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
Very cool. Likely will be a bear to get approval to use such a thing in the US I imagine. These do not appear to be terribly difficult to make as a basic version, but probably hard to get safety guarantees.
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Hi Peter. The article says University of Florida physicians "are working to address critical legal aspects as the design moves closer to fruition."
It'll be interesting to see how far this goes. Assuming the legal issues (probably related to the safety guarantees you mention) get resolved in a timely manner, I'd think we might see these in use sooner rather than later.

It's great that the developers are making it open source.

The SkyNews YouTube video about the similar ventilator developed by Oxford in the U.K. is also interesting.
 
Now they have to invent low-cost clinicians that can supervise the operation of the thing. We're headed for a crisis in medical personnel in addition to the hardware.
 
Late last night I received word that one of my friends, a retired airline captain living in Palm Springs, has been hospitalized in Desert Regional Medical Center with Covid-19 for a week and is now in ICU on a ventilator. This guy has been the picture of health for the twenty years I've known him.

Stay safe, everybody.
 
There are several cheap ventilator designs popping up; it's not rocket science, but we'd be taking away a profit center, I guess.
 
Note, there is more to proper ventilator design than just blowing into someone's lungs. If a person is put on a ventilator that's not managing PEEP and other factors appropriate, they will not fare well. We learned this in spades back in the seventies. Further, you need a trained person to watch the instrumentation and the patient to manage this. It's great to say "Hey! I built a ventilator" but quite another to have one that actually is useful.
 
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