
Low-cost ventilator wins Sloan health care prize (2019) - tomcam
http://news.mit.edu/2019/umbulizer-sloan-health-care-innovation-prize-0225
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selimthegrim
The idea is not solely and originally Piracha’s.

[https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistani-phd-alleges-that-his-
rese...](https://www.techjuice.pk/pakistani-phd-alleges-that-his-research-was-
plagiarized-to-file-a-patent-and-build-products/)

Mohammad Mujeebur Rahman was an acquaintance of mine when he was a grad
student and I was an undergrad at Caltech (in the MSA, although I have friends
who are closer to him). The authors of this article should think twice about
giving Piracha undiluted credit.

~~~
lvs
It's a news office press release. Nobody should expect it to be a well-
researched piece of independent reporting. Nothing more than marketing.

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bobowzki
Anyone has a link to a description of the actual ventilator? I'm an
anesthesiologist/intensivist so I'm a specialist in mechanical ventilation.
Would be fun to see what they came up with!

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postpawl
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES5Skn-X0AAkn3j?format=jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES5Skn-X0AAkn3j?format=jpg)

~~~
bobowzki
Thanks! Link doesn't resolve for me. I'm outside US...

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jaggederest
[https://i.imgur.com/LK3dDgN.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/LK3dDgN.jpg)

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Gatsky
This is cool, but if you spend 10 seconds in ICU with a patient needing
ventilation you will immediately realise the process can’t be scaled up merely
by virtue of having more machines.

This is why the only way to avoid the Italian situation is minimising and
spreading out the case load.

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dang
For follow-up submissions like this, it's best to link from the main thread.
I've done that here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22574271](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22574271)

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chvid
Great! Let’s get China to ramp up the production.

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atian
Relating to coronavirus (COVID-19), if you require a ventilator, your survival
chances are already slim.

> The median time from illness onset (ie, before admission) to discharge was
> 22·0 days (IQR 18·0–25·0), whereas the median time to death was 18·5 days
> (15·0–22·0; table 2). 32 patients required invasive mechanical ventilation,
> of whom 31 (97%) died. The median time from illness onset to invasive
> mechanical ventilation was 14·5 days (12·0–19·0). Extracorporeal membrane
> oxygenation was used in three patients, none of whom survived. Sepsis was
> the most frequently observed complication, followed by respiratory failure,
> ARDS, heart failure, and septic shock (table 2). Half of non-survivors
> experienced a secondary infection, and ventilator-associated pneumonia
> occurred in ten (31%) of 32 patients requiring invasive mechanical
> ventilation. The frequency of complications were higher in non-survivors
> than survivors (table 2)

[https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820...](https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2930566-3)

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GeorgeRichard
I know nothing about this field, however when I looked up "invasive mechanical
ventilation" Wikipedia told me: "Mechanical ventilation is termed "invasive"
if it involves any instrument inside the trachea through the mouth, such as an
endotracheal tube or the skin, such as a tracheostomy tube. Face or nasal
masks are used for non-invasive ventilation in appropriately selected
conscious patients.
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_ventilation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_ventilation)]

The device is pictured here
[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES5Skn-X0AAkn3j?format=jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ES5Skn-X0AAkn3j?format=jpg),
according to another comment, and it has a "Face or nasal mask" and is
therefore non-invasive. The gloomy death rate cited in the Lancet article not
be relevant to this machine and it might be a genuine lifesaver in the care of
COVID-19 patients.

~~~
Engineering-MD
I would say that your definition is a little too strict. There are devices
which rest on the top of the larynx (Laryngeal Mask Airway or LMA). These
devices are not within the trachea but can only be used in those under a
general anaesthetic and such are usually involved in the category invasive.

In essence, the main difference is invasive requires sedation (or the patient
has a tracheostomy which is a bit of a edge case)

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totalZero
A "face or nasal mask" wouldn't be invasive by your definition, either.

