Michigan Instruments Delivers Lung Simulators for Ventilator R&D

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Michigan Instruments delivers unprecedented number of lung simulators to aid in ventilator research and development amid shortage

Michigan Instruments, a leading manufacturer in Lung Simulation, has delivered an unprecedented number of lung simulators to organizations around the world to help in respiratory technology research and critical ventilator development and manufacturing to combat the shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many countries, including the United States, are continuing to see a rise in COVID-19 cases, which brings to light the extreme lack of medical resources like ventilators available to hospitals and critical care facilities.

In response, the world has seen an incredible response in the development and manufacturing of ventilators as researchers attempt to create a cost-effective and efficient lifesaving solution. Michigan Instruments has been at the forefront of this response by working with organizations to deliver Lung Simulators designed for validating and testing these ventilators. 

Organizations like NASA, Ford Motor Company, Cornell University, Michigan Technological University, University of California San Diego, OperationAir, and the Royal Women’s Hospital, Monash University and the Alfred Hospital in Australia have all used Michigan Instruments lung simulators to aid in the development and discovery of several potential ventilator solutions.

  • A group of engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have developed a high-pressure ventilator that can mechanically breathe for patients with the most severe cases of COVID-19.
  • Students and faculty from Cornell University, Michigan Technological University, and the University of California San Diego have all developed versions of effective, low-cost ventilator systems created using inexpensive materials or materials readily available.
  • OperationAir has also developed a prototype called the AIRone, an easily producible emergency ventilator that can be used when shortages occur due to the pandemic. Production has already started on the device and its design is open source and available globally.
  • A team of researchers from the Royal Women’s Hospital, Monash University and Alfred Hospital have successfully tested, in a simulated environment, the potential to ventilate two lungs of different compliances from a single ventilator using only commonly available hospital equipment.

These lung simulators provide developers with cutting edge technology that can aid in the design, engineering, testing and manufacturing of devices like ventilators by replicating hundreds of healthy and diseased lung conditions to evaluate a ventilator’s performance with accurate measurement and data reporting.

Based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Michigan Instruments continues to produce and ship Lung Simulators. The increased demand in production allowed Michigan Instruments to utilize qualified workers from other manufacturers forced to close during the Michigan shut down, as well as existing employees working extended hours.

Chris Blanker, President & Owner of Michigan Instruments shared, “In a time when many manufacturers were forced to lay off employees and slow production, we were blessed to be able to remain open, provide work for our employees and utilize very talented workers from local companies forced to close. Sadly, this is due to the Pandemic, but our team is proud to know that our devices are helping with the development and supporting the production of ventilators and other devices that help save lives.”The ventilator’s modularity, that it can function as a transport or an ICU ventilator, running with a desktop or laptop, is one of the key innovations of Ivy’s design. By running multiple instances of the clinician software, a single tablet or computer can govern multiple ventilators remotely, so nurses can monitor many patients without having to enter their rooms.

Chris Blanker shared, “We are very proud to have been able to quickly ramp up production and delivery of our lung simulators for the organizations that are developing and manufacturing critical ventilators and other devices to help save lives. The production ramp up was challenging, but our team rose to the task.  We’ve worked closely with developers and manufacturers of all backgrounds and we look forward to continued partnerships like this. ”

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MTU Supports Open-Source COVID-19 Device Research

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HOUGHTON — As COVID-19 cases have surged, the shortage of working ventilators has become one of the biggest obstacles in treating patients.

A Michigan Technological University professor is one of the people working on a solution. Joshua Pearce, Richard Witte Endowed Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and a professor of electrical and computer engineering, is co-editor in chief of HardwareX, an open-source scientific hardware journal. It is now accepting submissions for an issue with proposals for making ventilators and other necessary equipment, such as non-contact thermometers and N95 respirators. Those can be through 3-D printing, or with materials and tools readily available at hardware stores. 

Several previous authors have indicated they will submit papers, Pearce said. One South American researcher is testing an open-source ultraviolet sterilization method that can be used for entire rooms. 

“He had done it for biological research, but he’s adapted it for a hospital setting as well,” Pearce said. 

Submissions will be taken until June 1, then posted online within a week of their acceptance. HardwareX is making the issue available to all to ensure a fast peer review. 

Michigan Tech is also tackling the problem. Pearce runs the Michigan Tech Open Sustainability Technology (MOST) Lab. He is also part of Tech’s Open Source Initiative. 

One approach they are working on is recreating a low-cost ventilator used by a Tech Enterprise team that was deployed in Africa. 

“That is slightly challenging because we only have access to one of the labs on campus,” Pearce said. 

Testing is using artificial lungs from Michigan Instruments to simulate the ventilators’ effect on humans. 

“No one is quite there yet,” Pearce said. “It’s very, very challenging on the software side to control the pressures so you don’t damage people’s lungs.”

COVID-19 closures have already caused problems with access to some places. One of the most promising leads was a paper published in 2019 by a research team in Pakistan, with whom Pearce had been working. The team had access to an artificial lung and could run tests immediately. However, their university was shut down due to the pandemic. 

“The last version of the code is stuck on some computer at the university, and nobody can get access to it,” Pearce said. 

Other researchers are looking at converting a CPAP machine to assist people in breathing. 

All of this is taking place when teams are restricted to what Pearce calls “the absolute worst way to do designing”: limits on how many can be in a lab, limited access to equipment and disrupted supply chains. Before the next pandemic, Pearce said, there should be government-funded open-source designs pre-tested and ready to put into place when the need arises.

“That would relieve a lot of the costs associated with having stockpiles, and really help the countries that don’t have the capital to build 10,000 ventilators,” he said. 

In March, Pearce conducted a review of open-source ventilators. While promising, he said, the systems that had been tested and peer-reviewed did not have full documentation. Those that were documented were either early designs or had not finished testing. 

“With the considerably larger motivation of an ongoing pandemic, it is assumed these projects will garner greater attention and resources to make significant progress to reach a functional and easily replicated open source ventilator system,” he said. 

A $1,500 ventilator system being developed by the Innovative Global Solutions Enterprise team at Tech had been one of the furthest along, Pearce said. However, it could not reach its fundraising goal through Superior Ideas, Michigan Tech’s crowdfunding platform. 

“If it had been funded, we’d probably have the solution already and we could shop it out,” Pearce said.

See The Daily Mining Gazette Article.

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