The HDvent Emergency Ventilator System

TL;DR

The paper presents the design of the HDvent Emergency Ventilator System, an open-source, mechanically driven device intended to provide a safe, reliable, and economical alternative to commercial ventilators during COVID-19 shortages.

Contribution

It introduces a novel open-source ventilator design that uses mechanical compression and includes control electronics, sensors, and monitoring, suitable for pressure and volume control.

Findings

Design is suitable for open loop ventilation

System includes control electronics and sensors

Prototype documentation is freely available

Abstract

The pandemic caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected countries all across the world, heavily burdening the medical infrastructure with the growing number of patients affected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). With ventilators in limited supply, this public health emergency highlights the need for safe, fast, reliable, and economical alternatives to high-end commercial devices and has prompted the development of easy-to-use and mass-producible ventilators. Here, we detail the design of the HDvent Emergency Ventilator System. The device performs ventilation through mechanical compression of manual resuscitators and includes control electronics, flow and pressure sensors, and an external data visualization and monitoring unit. We demonstrate its suitability for open loop, pressure- and volume-controlled ventilation. The system has not undergone clinical testing and has not been approved for use as a medical device. The project documentation needed to reproduce the prototype is freely available and will contribute to the development of open source ventilation systems.