Emergency Ventilator Valve Control for Mode Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a critical shortage of mechanical ventilators and skilled personnel, necessitating a low-cost, rapid-to-deploy, and flexible ventilator solution that can provide both invasive and non-invasive ventilation modes, while minimizing component count and reliance on custom parts.
Innovation Solution
A ventilator design utilizing externally pressurized medical grade gases with time-limited flow interruption to control ventilator rate and tidal volume, minimizing components and leveraging existing hospital gas supplies, and allowing switching between invasive and non-invasive modes, thus simplifying manufacturing, storage, and deployment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional mass-produced ventilators with internal compressors and mixers are used, then ventilatory support function is provided, but device complexity, manufacturing cost, and deployment time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the internal compressor and gas mixer components from the ventilator system. Instead, it uses externally supplied pressurized medical grade gases that are already mixed, eliminating the need for these complex internal components while maintaining ventilatory support function.
Solution Approach 2:
The ventilator is designed to provide both invasive and non-invasive ventilation modes using the same basic component structure. By keeping inspiratory and expiratory valves open for non-invasive mode and controlling them for invasive mode, a single device serves multiple functions without requiring separate specialized equipment.
2Reliability
If traditional ventilators with internal compressors are used, then ventilatory support is provided, but manufacturing and deployment time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses pre-mixed medical grade gases that are supplied externally at the appropriate pressure and composition. This preliminary preparation of the gas mixture eliminates the need for on-site compression and mixing operations, significantly reducing deployment time while ensuring reliable ventilatory support.
3Productivity
If ventilators are designed for rapid deployment with minimal components, then deployment speed increases, but ability to provide both invasive and non-invasive modes may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The ventilator employs dynamically controllable inspiratory and expiratory valves that can operate in different configurations. For invasive ventilation, the valves are controlled to enforce respiration cycles, while for non-invasive ventilation, they remain open to allow free gas passage. This dynamic adaptability enables a single simplified device to provide both ventilation modes effectively.
Data Source
AI summary
A ventilator system configured to switch between one or more invasive ventilation modes and one or more non-invasive ventilation modes is provided, the ventilator system comprising: an externally pressurized source of pre-mixed gas comprising air and oxygen; one or more inspiratory valves configured to deliver incoming pre-mixed gas to a patients breathing circuit; and one or more expiratory valves configured to remove outgoing gas from the patients breathing circuit; wherein in the one or more invasive ventilation modes, the inspiratory valves and the expiratory valves are configured to open and close to allow or prevent the passage of gas as needed in order to enforce a respiration cycle within the patient; and wherein in the one or more non-invasive ventilation modes, the inspiratory valves and the expiratory valves are kept open in order to allow the gas to pass freely through the system.