Project Open Air

No real information. Marketingy-pictures. This seems like total fluff? I feel like the other HN post about DIY ventilators is a lot more interesting.

Neat idea, though I think it will be quite some time before it produces something that people can build or use.

Another option might be to figure out ways to adapt existing ventilators to be used by multiple patients. If you find 4 patients with similar tidal volumes and body size, you can grab some Y tubing, attach them to the same ventilator, then set it to 4x the tidal volume and breathe for all of them.

This has been studied before[1] and was done in at least one mass casualty event[2]. The main disadvantage is the risk of spreading germs (though the air return hose is separate from the incoming hose, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem) and the fact that patients sharing a ventilator require more careful monitoring of blood gasses.[3]

I doubt patient outcomes will be as good as having one ventilator per patient, but if it can increase our capacity by 4x overnight it seems worth pursuing.

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16885402/

2. https://epmonthly.com/article/not-heroes-wear-capes-one-las-...

3. https://www.resuscitationjournal.com/article/S0300-9572(08)0...

This is madness. You can’t scale up ICU based ventilatory support to keep up with a pandemic.

All resources should be going towards infection control measures, a quick and highly scalable diagnostic test, and antiviral therapy. In that order.

Let's be positive. Though it's a long shot and probably unlikely usable in the developed nation context, there are 7 billion people on planet earth many of whom might be stricken in the coming months (and years), if someone can put together a solid, reliable, simple piece of gear that works, it's not unfeasible that 'someone' could pay for rapid manufacture (this is definitely possible) and distribution in far-flung places wherein 'basic' might just be a lot of help. Or maybe not, but it's maybe worth trying.

It 'starts somewhere', so I hope it works.

An anonymous spinup website. For some reason, some feel the urgency to put affairs into order on when its trending. Not before that, though?

Wouldn't hospitals, WHO, UN, whoever be able to come together with their capital and just buy out a medical company?

Wouldn't this have to also get past regulations? I'm not too sure if I want a kickstarter for medical equipment. I'd love to see medicines and medical equipment made open and maintainable though!