Designing Emergency Pneumatic Ventilators for Covid-19
In anticipation of a ventilator shortage at the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Carle Foundation Hospital partnered with the University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering to develop an emergency pneumatic ventilator for rapid, low-cost production. As the liaison between clinical and engineering teams, I translated complex medical requirements into clear technical specifications to ensure the final product met real-world demands in emergency conditions. Our design, RapidVent, was eventually approved by the FDA under an emergency use authorization (EUA) and licensed to Belkin for mass production.
Role
Design Researcher
Topic Areas
Healthcare, Rapid Manufacturing
Project Type
Research, Product Design
Our Process
To start, I compiled a comparative analysis of current pneumatic ventilator designs. My initial research identified the Vortran Go2Vent as a design with immense potential. Our team spent three weeks re-engineering this base design to specifically meet the anticipated needs of COVID-19 patients. Daily 7 a.m. meetings followed by 13+ hours of sub-team meetings, interviews, prototyping, testing, and iteration became the familiar tempo of our days as the severity and scale of the COVID-19 crisis unfolded around us. The manufacturing process was extremely iterative; research happened concurrently with prototype development. As part of the user experience sub-team, I interviewed hospital administrators and numerous clinicians: physicians, respiratory therapists, nurses, etc. With a materials engineering and design research background, I also embedded within the Engineering & Test, User Experience, and Sensor & Alarms sub-teams, translating clinical insights into the device’s technical parameters.
The first working prototype of the RapidVent in action.
Demonstration of the additional RapidAlarm system.
Results
After three intense weeks of research, prototyping, and iteration, we designed a functional 3D-printed, pneumatic ventilator for emergency treatment of COVID-19 patients. In partnership with Belkin, this design was submitted and approved by the FDA for use under the emergency use authorization (EAU). The final designs are available online under a free license. To read more about RapidVent, see this webpage. The results and process were also published in the academic journal PLOS One.