Rice University engineers design DIY ventilation unit
As news of ventilator shortages in areas hit hard by COVID-19 grew, a team at Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK), together with global health design firm Metric Technologies, worked to refine an easy-to-assemble ventilation unit originally created by undergraduate engineering students.
The ApolloBVM (BVM stands for bag valve mask) is not intended to be used in place of a ventilator when one is available, but rather as a bridge device. While typical bag valve masks pump air into the lungs by hand, this device is automated, making it highly desirable for patients in need of continuous support. The unit is made from easy-to-acquire materials and features adult, child and pediatric settings.
“Our technicians got together with one whiz-kid student and decided to redesign it and make it super simple,” said Amy Kavalewitz, OEDK executive director. “Working with Dr. Rohith Malya from Baylor as our advisor, they redesigned it in a way where, if you had the tools and you had the equipment and you had some basic knowledge of how to build a device, you could put one of these together.”
Malya, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, an adjunct assistant professor of bioengineering at Rice and a principal at Metric Technologies, worked closely with Danny Blacker, OEDK’s engineering design supervisor, and Rice University then-senior “whiz-kid” Thomas Herring.
In early April, the team published instructions for the unit online for anyone who wished to build one. Cost for parts is less than $300. Since then, the team has contracted with Houston-based Stewart & Stevenson to manufacture the device, and they are working on emergency approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin production.
Tags | ApolloBVM, Baylor College of Medicine, COVID-19, Next Med, OEDK, Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen, Rice University, ventilator
