NEWS-MEDICAL: University of Michigan and Makemedical Ventilator Splitter with Individual Pressure Capability to be Manufactured by Autocam Medical
As the pandemic swept across the nation in March, so did urgent questions about the virus’ potential strain on the healthcare system.
Among top concerns: whether the nation’s hospitals had enough ventilators to provide breathing support to critically ill patients with the disease COVID-19, which mainly attacks the lungs.
As experts predicted a surge in coronavirus cases and a possible shortage in intensive care unit equipment, University of Michigan teams immediately got to work on a solution. The mission: to quickly develop an efficient, affordable and more controlled way to expand ventilator capacity.
Now, just weeks later, U-M and Michigan Medicine researchers have invented an individualized vent-splitter that may allow multiple patients to receive customized pressures while sharing a single ventilator. U-M has filed for patent protection on the technology, and a local start-up, MakeMedical LLC, has licensed the technology and developed it into the VentMITM device.
The VentMITM device has been tested in animals and received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. MakeMedical, which U-M inventors have equity in, will provide the device at cost to other institutions without any profit for U-M or the company.
