U Of I Developing New Ventilator To Treat Coronavirus Patients

CHAMPAIGN — A prototype emergency ventilator to accommodate projected shortages in respiratory equipment associated with the new coronavirus is in development through a joint effort between the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign's Grainger College of Engineering and Carle Health. The ventilator, known as the Illinois RapidVent, would plug into the oxygen source available in most hospital rooms or into tanks of oxygen.

"This coronavirus can impact a patient's lungs, and those who are sickest may need help breathing," Karen white, a faculty member at the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, said in a news release. "Ventilators are necessary to help patients get more oxygen. That's why we're optimistic that by further developing the Illinois RapidVent we can develop more options for our sickest patients."

Other partners in the project include Siebel Center for Design, its Applied Research Institute, Carle Health, Tekmill and Creative Thermal Solutions. Within a week of brainstorming, a prototype was operational. It has now run for more than 75 hours, or more than 125,000 breathing cycles.

IL Coronavirus Update: Deaths Include Patients In 20s, 30s, 100s

Don't miss updates about precautions in the Chicago area as they are announced. Sign up for Patch news alerts and newsletters.

[RECIRC]

"We are continuing the prototyping and testing, and the design is available freely to manufacturers via a license," Carle Health spokeswoman Jamie Mullin said. "Should manufacturers license the Illinois RapidVent, we're committed to working with them to help get things up and running as quickly as possible."

The next step is identifying partners and resources to produce the Illinois RapidVent at scale.
An estimated timetable on when the device could be manufactured and distributed on a large scale or the possible cost to hospitals was not provided.

This article originally appeared on the Champaign Patch