Smart Ventilator Design

Omar Husain, 30 April 2021

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic our team of 6 engineers and 1 doctor designed a prototype of a ventilator solution that could potentially DOUBLE the number of patients who have access to ventilation. I am so proud of this team and the work we did in such a short time.

The idea is to split a traditional ventilator into two or more circuits so that more patients can be taken care of by one machine. However, each patient has a different lung capacity, resistance, and is at a different stage in their illness. Therefore, simply splitting the ventilator will cause one patient to get more air then another, and won’t necessarily provide the correct treatment to either patient.

Prototype Smart Ventilator Splitter

Our solution was to add control valves and a controller to the circuit to ensure that each patient received the right treatment. We thought this would be more useful than creating new open source ventilators from scratch, as we could leverage the existing machines and just create an add-on.

Data Visualized on the App

Our team built a 3D printed prototype and created an app, all within 10 days for the Montreal General Hospital Challenge. It was an incredible feat for such a short period of time and we learned a lot from this experience.