RIT leads regional response to ventilator shortage, creating prototype to aid coronavirus fight
Rochester Institute of Technology is leading an effort involving local companies and healthcare experts to produce a prototype ventilator designed to help meet the continuing surge of respiratory cases as a result of the coronavirus.
According to Nabil Nasr, associate provost and founding director of the Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS), the collaborative project between RIT researchers—working in tandem with regional experts and healthcare providers—resulted in the creation of an emergency prototype ventilator that will help doctors and nurses on the front lines in the medical treatment of patients fighting COVID-19.
The prototype ventilator plugs into the oxygen source available in most hospital rooms or into a tank of oxygen. Laboratory testing so far has shown performance successfully meeting clinicians’ requirements for COVID-19 patients.