Introduction

Welcome to Open Source Ventilator (OSV) Ireland. This project was initiated by the COVID-19 global pandemic as a result of a community discussion within a Facebook group called Open Source COVID-19 Medical Supplies (OSCMS). This group rapidly grew and currently is targeting the development of a number of different COVID-19 related medical supplies.
 
OSV Ireland was formed by Colin Keogh, Conall Laverty & David Pollard, with the goal of building a focused team in Ireland to begin development of a Field Emergency Ventilator (FEV) in partnership with the Irish Health Service. To date we have formed a team of engineers, designers and medical practitioners to develop new, low resource interventions, all working collaboratively online. Bag Valve Masks (BVM), 3D printed and traditionally manufactured components are being considered to maximise potential manufacturing capabilities. We will also include other challenges and problems as they arise from frontline healthcare workers, which we will encourage our volunteers to tackle.
 
We have a core developer team publishing open source designs with ongoing communication with medical professionals regarding needs requirements, testing and validation processes. The developer team is led by OpenLung in Canada  in collaboration with an Irish based engineering and operations team. The developer team is led by Trevor Smale, Dr. Andrew Finkle, and David O’Reilly from OpenLung as well as Conall Laverty and Dr. Keith Kennedy from Ireland. Work is well underway with hundreds of worldwide contributors.
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Steps to Get Started

Fill out our Register Your Interest form here: 
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This step is how we will identify your skill sets and assign you to the appropriate areas if needs require. 
 
Hold On! - We will reach out when your skills are needed, until then check out the following:
Join our Slack workspace and join relevant channels. Send in ideas, concepts and power the discussion.
 
Read the rest of this page to get an overview of the project and to know what's happening.
 

The Challenge

The problems posed by COVID-19 are varied, but information shows that the main issues are (1)

  • COVID-19 is incredibly infectious, due to a 5-day incubation period with pre-symptomatic transmission.
  • 15-20% of infected people require hospitalization for respiratory problems.
  • Patients can be hospitalized for weeks. During this time, the availability of respiratory support and ventilators are required.
  • Healthcare systems may be overwhelmed by the requirement for ventilators, thus leading to shortages.
  • This could be a significant issue in developing regions, with less robust healthcare systems.

  

We hope that our solutions will never be required and never be used in practice, however if they are needed, we would like to have a range of prototyped, tested and medically validated solutions ready for emergency use globally.

Our Mission

Our mission is to develop a Field Emergency Ventilator (FEV) system to be used in an emergency situation, where a large number of basic ventilator systems are required. We are working closely with a core design team of 20+ area experts, external organisations and other open source groups to develop a number of viable concepts for testing.
 
The overall goal is to develop & design a simplified, low-cost and open-source emergency-use ventilator, producible at scale to aid the treatment of COVID19 patients. 
 
This open source design project is consolidating findings from experts globally to accelerate the development of working prototypes. Working closely with OpenLung Canada, and their designers, a number of concepts are being finalised for prototyping and testing. The project fully embraces the Open Source ideal, with all files made available online as the project progresses. 
 
This low-resource Field Emergency Ventilator (FEV) is intended to be a simple, reliable, safe and easy to use device that consists mostly of 3D printed parts and uses a Bag Valve Mask (BVM). This is an emergency field solution that can be relatively easily mass produced with certified components and rapidly deployed by general care workers on the front-line fight against COVID-19. We have been working in close consultation with frontline healthcare workers and other related bodies to ensure the development of a viable solution. We will also include other challenges and problems as they arise from frontline healthcare workers, which we will encourage our volunteers to form groups and tackle.
 
We are quickly trying to set up structures and systems to fast track the development of these solutions, organize volunteers and structure a response.
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Project Philosophy

This project is Open source in nature, with solutions developed for use worldwide and open from contributions from others.

  •       Open source in nature so iterative and open for community involvement
  •       Development of a Field Emergency Ventilator (FEV) to support medical practitioners
  •       The use of basic components, safe design is preferable to no intervention at all
  •       Supplies and materials will be locally sourced where available
  •       The design(s) will be validated; validation will be documented and transparency will be made available to local health services
  •       Dissemination via Internet (www.opensourceventilator.ie) and GitHub.

Operational Assumptions

  • Regulatory bodies may waive clearance or reduce regulatory barriers for emergency interventions.
  • Traditional certified medical components and supplies used in ventilators will be in short supply.
  • Logistics will be impaired/disrupted. Non-medical supplies, manufacturing systems and components will be readily available globally.

 

The content of Open Source Ventilator's website is for information only, not advice or guarantee of outcome.This ventilator may not be suitable for all applications and must be used under medical advice & guidance.

Project Status

We are still getting organized. Please be patient.

We have a core team of 20+ Engineers, Designer and Medical Practitioners working on developing solutions to this problem. 

All input is appreciated so your contributions are welcomed in our Slack channel (see buttons below for links to Slack).

We will be releasing project goals, functional groups and structured plans ASAP.

We are close to prototyping a number of additional solutions. The leading designs can be found here.

We encourage you to dig into the designs, prototype, iteration and feedback your results and insight to everyone on slack. 

Resources

SLACK

(Many different projects)
GITHUBGOOGLE DOCS

References

(1) The Center for Safety, Simulation and Advanced Learning Technologies, University of Florida Health

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