Space.com By Mike Wall 4/24/2020
Engineers at JPL built the machine. It just passed a key test.
The new machine, called VITAL ("Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally"), can be manufactured quickly, NASA officials said. VITAL also features a flexible design that accommodates use in temporary field hospitals, such as the ones that have sprung up in hotels and convention centers around the world to deal with the crush of patients suffering from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
VITAL is meant to supplement rather than replace traditional hospital ventilators, which can operate for years and help patients with a variety of ailments. The new device is specifically designed for COVID-19 sufferers and has a planned lifetime of three to four months, NASA officials said.
"Intensive care units are seeing COVID-19 patients who require highly dynamic ventilators," J.D. Polk, NASA's chief health and medical officer, said in the same statement. "The intention with VITAL is to decrease the likelihood patients will get to that advanced stage of the disease and require more advanced ventilator assistance."
NASA is seeking fast-track approval for VITAL from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The space agency plans to offer a free license for the new ventilator and is currently reaching out to potential manufacturing partners in the private medical sector.
More:
https://www.space.com/nasa-covid-19-ventilator-passes-test.html
