Coronavirus: furloughed CERN physicists release design for Covid-19 patient ventilator
- New ventilator design meant for patients in long-term care and recovery phases of treatment as shortages loom
- Designers say the design is easy to manufacture and integrates well in hospitals
A group of physicists and engineers affiliated with the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) have developed a prototype ventilator designed for Covid-19 patients as health authorities in the US and Europe scramble to treat those stricken by the respiratory ailment.
The high energy ventilator (HEV) designed by 31 now-furloughed CERN associates is meant to address the particular needs of Covid-19 patients under long-term care and those in their recovery phase, according to a production proposal published by the team on Friday.
HEV was designed for easy manufacture and integration into hospital environments and is not intended to replace “high-end devices needed for the most intense phase of treatment”.
The HEV team said that it had successfully tested the prototype’s unique automatic buffering capability, which is needed to avoid damaging the lungs of Covid-19 patients, on March 27. They are now seeking feedback to move quickly to development and deployment.
The HEV project developed from discussions among members one of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider groups, “when lead-designer Jan Buytaert (CERN) realised that the systems which are routinely used to supply and control gas at desired temperatures and pressures in particle-physics detectors are well matched to the techniques required to build and operate a ventilator,” according to a report on Friday in the CERN Courier.
Pressure variances sensed by the HEV can automatically “fail-safe” the machine onto full ventilation support if patients stop breathing.
