81–90 of 147 posts
Are ventilators even helping? I see numbers like a 30% survival rate in some places, but they don't mention if that means "aren't dead yet" or recovered and removed from the ventilator. I definitely read about people who have successfully been removed and are recovering, but that's all anecdotal.
This is not Tesla, but Seat has already done it : https://www.seat.com/company/news/company/from-making-cars-t... Less techie, more down to earth, they used wipe motors.
That's great. I hope wiper motors can take that kind of continuous actuation -- it's not really what they're designed for. I'm sure they'll stress test the hell out of it.
Yes, this is an impressive amount of work done in a few weeks by a small team at Tesla. However, medical devices, especially for life support systems, are not a Hackathon project. These devices breathe air into patients lungs. They need to be manufactured in clean room conditions, with medical grade parts, not plumbing parts from a big box store. They must be designed and tested to ISO specifications. If this fails,…
I knew someone at Hacker News will make a comment like this. Hacker News is cynicism at its finest. "I can't imagine any hospital or doctor careless enough to connect one of these to a patient, even in this current emergency." This is utter BS. Imagine that you are in a situation where you are trying to ration lives by selecting who gets access to a ventilator. Won't you not use this device then too? Please, for god'…
If a well-known medical company can produce something that doctors say is essentially worse than doing nothing, due to the lung physiology of Covid-19 patients, then you betcha Tesla can end up doing the same.
Like others have said: start from a design that works, and scale it up. This is not a time for NIH.
Yes, this is an impressive amount of work done in a few weeks by a small team at Tesla. However, medical devices, especially for life support systems, are not a Hackathon project. These devices breathe air into patients lungs. They need to be manufactured in clean room conditions, with medical grade parts, not plumbing parts from a big box store. They must be designed and tested to ISO specifications. If this fails,…
Without these sorts of things, patients are dying. This is not business as usual. We are already using various hacks to overcome the shortages, any improvement is worthwhile in the very short term.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I knew someone at Hacker News will make a comment like this. Hacker News is cynicism at its finest. "I can't imagine any hospital or doctor careless enough to connect one of these to a patient, even in this current emergency." This is utter BS. Imagine that you are in a situation where you are trying to ration lives by selecting who gets access to a ventilator. Won't you not use this device then too? Please, for god'…
Actually, we had a (world renowned) medical company where I live annouce an emergency ventilator design, complete with functioning prototype. The design was quickly torn apart in public by doctors working on actual Covid-19 patients (the caseload is still manageable here). The device was then shelved. If a well-known medical company can produce something that doctors say is essentially worse than doing nothing, due t…
What BS. Take your cynicism elsewhere. You literally are the living embodiment of my point above.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I knew someone at Hacker News will make a comment like this. Hacker News is cynicism at its finest. "I can't imagine any hospital or doctor careless enough to connect one of these to a patient, even in this current emergency." This is utter BS. Imagine that you are in a situation where you are trying to ration lives by selecting who gets access to a ventilator. Won't you not use this device then too? Please, for god'…
Actually, we had a (world renowned) medical company where I live annouce an emergency ventilator design, complete with functioning prototype. The design was quickly torn apart in public by doctors working on actual Covid-19 patients (the caseload is still manageable here). The device was then shelved. If a well-known medical company can produce something that doctors say is essentially worse than doing nothing, due t…
Are there certification requirements for newly designed ventilators? If so, how long would that take?
Like many others have pointed out, if the option is this uncertified machine or certain death - which would you choose?
Actual proper testing and certification would likely take years - and we need them within the next few weeks.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> However, medical devices, especially for life support systems, are not a Hackathon project. This effort they're doing really doesn't seem like they're treating it like a "Hackathon" project. They're putting real engineering resources behind it. Whether or not they can produce something in time is still up in the air, but it seems to me Musk is attacking the problem from several different angles and hoping something…
> This effort they're doing really doesn't seem like they're treating it like a "Hackathon" project. They're putting real engineering resources behind it. Engineers can and do hackathon work, but real engineering work is way more about verification and validation than hacking stuff together. Products need to ensure that they will work reliably within all operational limits. You don't ensure that with an all nighter a…
Does the video linked look like the result of "an all nighter and a 3D printer" to you?
Yes, this is an impressive amount of work done in a few weeks by a small team at Tesla. However, medical devices, especially for life support systems, are not a Hackathon project. These devices breathe air into patients lungs. They need to be manufactured in clean room conditions, with medical grade parts, not plumbing parts from a big box store. They must be designed and tested to ISO specifications. If this fails,…
Tesla partnered with Medtronic https://www.medtronic.com/us-en/index.html It seems that they also work as parts supplier for Medtronic.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If this fails, the patient can die. If these patients receive no help, they die anyway. Given the choice between almost certain death or some experimental piece of hardware - give me the experimental hardware. > I can't imagine any hospital or doctor careless enough to > connect one of these to a patient, even in this current > emergency. I'm sure they will go through accelerated testing. > The smarter idea is to r…
The US already has a model for this though: During WW2, Ford Motor Company didn't stroke Henry Ford's ego by designing and building their own bombers -- they license built B-24s. Yes, retooling costs. But tooling costs as well, and costs more besides. With Elon's PR reach, I would expect that he could get at least one vent manufacturer to license a design to him for a dollar/handshake/whatever.