Masi: A mechanical ventilator based on a manual resuscitator with telemedicinecapabilities for patients with ARDS during the COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced critical shortages of ventilators worldwide,translating into an unmet need for rapidly deployable mechanical ventilators with sufficientfunctionality to manage COVID-19 patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome(ARDS). In this article, we present the development and validation of a portable and low-costventilator that could be rapidly manufactured with minimal susceptibility to supply chaindisruptions. This ventilator offers robustness, safety and functionality absent in existing solutionsto the ventilator shortage (i.e., telemonitoring, easy-to-disinfect, modularity). The design makesuse of a manual resuscitator as the core respiration component activated by a compressionmechanism which consist of two electronically controlled paddles. The quality measurementsobtained after testing on a calibrated artificial lung demonstrate repeatability and accuracyexceeding human capabilities of manual ventilation. The complete design files are provided in thesupplementary materials to facilitate ventilator production even in resource-limited settings. Theimplementation of this mechanical ventilator could eliminate device rationing or splitting to servemultiple patients on Intensive Care Units