Ventilators are medical devices used by patients in intensive care units (ICUs) with serious respiratory diseases, such as tuberculosis and Covid-19. They mechanically support the breathing of patients.
The coronavirus pandemic led to a scramble to obtain many more invasive ventilators, as clinicians warned that there was a severe shortage of these devices to meet the needs of patients with severe cases of Covid-19. In the UK, engineering companies with no prior experience with these complex devices were encouraged by the government to turn their attentions to designing and adapting ventilators such that they could be manufactured at a greater pace.
Now, researchers from Imperial College have presented their design for the low-cost, simple 'Relavent' ventilator, which achieves all the performance requirements set out in the international standard for critical care ventilators. It also performs as well with a home-use oxygen concentrator as with pressurised...