Engineers design an automated bag valve mask to tackle the shortage of ventilators due to Covid19

Dr Matthew Wettergreen and his team at the Rice Univeristy, in Texas, designed an automated bag valve mask in less than two weeks to tackle the needs emerging because of the Covid19 pandemic.

This automated bag valve mask device is meant to take less-critical patients off ventilators and free them up for those in more critical conditions.

The team’s solution is inexpensive and fully automated. It consists of a hand-held device commonly used by medical professions to provide ventilation to patient. “It’s automatic, electric, and works independently of a tech,” Dr Wettergreen said. “It’s not designed for people who are critical cases, but rather who are in respiratory distress.”

The simple design allows to build the prototype in hospitals or temporary facilities. A prototype will be finalised with the help of the Canadian global health design firm Metric Technologies.

The team named their device ApolloBMV and the files for the device are now open source and accessible online at their website.

More information: http://oedk.rice.edu/apollobvm

Adapted from: https://austin.culturemap.com/news/innovation/03-30-20-rice-university-a...

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