UMN anesthesiology fellow Stephen Richardson partnered with the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center, directed by ME Professor Arthur Erdman, to create a prototype for a low-cost ventilator based on the idea of motorized Ambu bags. One week and 70 volunteers later, two prototypes — now called the Coventor — tested successfully.

The mechanical ventilator is simple to use for ICU-trained medical providers. It is compact — the size of a cereal box—and relatively inexpensive to manufacture and distribute. The device does not require pressurized oxygen or air supply unlike commercially available mechanical ventilators.

The proposed system consists of a frame and mechanical actuator that will stabilize and compress a commercially available ambulatory ventilation bag connected to the patient’s endotracheal tube and external compressed oxygen, or if oxygen is not available, ambient air. The frame can be metal-stamped, 3D-printed or modified consumer goods.