CLICK ON DETROIT: Autocam Medical to Manufacture Ventilator Device to Support Multiple COVID-19 Victims on a Single Ventilator with Individual Pressure
University of Michigan and Michigan Medicine researchers have invented a device to help multiple COVID-19 patients receive personalized gas pressures and pressure monitoring from a single ventilator.
Using 3D printing, researchers created an affordable and mobile vent splitter, a device that allows different patients to use one ventilator.
The team of researchers made the VentMI device as a response to predicted shortages in intensive care unit equipment for patients with COVID-19.
With current vent splitters, there are limitations on how ventilators can be used. Since shared ventilator circuits only deliver one pre-set pressure, patients using the ventilator must have similarly-sized lungs and needs.
The personalized settings of the VentMI allow patients with different ventilator needs and lung capacities to share a ventilator. The technology works by slowly releasing compressed air to patients, like a scuba tank regulator.
