Can Open Source Hardware Mechanical Ventilator (OSH-MVs) initiatives help cope with the COVID-19 health crisis? Taxonomy and state of the art

Abstract

The field of Open Source Hardware Mechanical Ventilators (OSH-MVs) has seen a steep rise of contributions during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. As predictions showed that the number of patients would exceed current supply of hospital-grade ventilators, a number of formal (academia, the industry and governments) and informal (fablabs and startups) entities raced to develop cheap, easy-to-fabricate mechanical ventilators. The presence of actors with very diverse modus operandi as well as the speed at which the field has grown, led to a fragmented design space characterized by a lack of clear design patterns, projects not meeting the minimum functional requirements or showing little-to-no innovation; but also valid alternatives to hospital-grade devices. In this paper we provide a taxonomic system to help researchers with no background in biomedical engineering to read, understand and contribute to the OSH-MV field. The taxonomy is composed of ten properties that are read through the lenses of three reflection criteria: buildability, adoptability and scalability. We applied the taxonomy to the analysis of seventeen OSH-MV projects, which are representative of the current landscape of possibilities available for COVID-19 patients. We discuss the different design choices adopted by each project highlighting strengths and weaknesses and we suggest possible directions for the development of the OSH-MV field.

Keywords: Biomedical equipment; COVID-19; Digital manufacturing; Literature review; Mechanical ventilator; Open-source hardware; Taxonomic system.

Graphical abstract

Fig. 1

Relation between criteria lenses and properties.

Fig. 2

The reviewed OSH-MV projects with respect to investigation criteria defined in Section 3.

Fig. 3

Different approaches for automating the squeezing of an AmbuBag, via pulleys (VentCore, left), motorized claws (E-Vent, center), pressurized air (Gtech, Right).

Fig. 4

Three different user interfaces, physical controls (MUR, left), display showing settings (ApolloBVM, center), touchscreen showing real-time sensor data (MVM, right).

Fig. 5

Photos of the reviewed projects.