Biomedical Say About COVID-19 Ventilators Shortages

With the emergence of COVID-19 and its widespread around the globe, we find it as an important time for Biomedical engineers and biomedical technicians to have an impact on fighting such a pandemic.

Many hospitals around the globe have shortages in ventilators many other medical supplies that are vital in fighting this virus.

Ventilator Shortages forces Medtronic to go 24/7

Increasing Ventilators Production 

Many medical equipment companies have ramped up their production to vital medical devices to cope with the rising needs for such supplies, for example, Getinge has announced that it will increase its ventilators production by 60%. Also, we are sure that many manufacturers will follow this trend.

On the other hand, there will be logistical problems preventing or at least delaying the reach of these newly manufactured devices to where they are needed especially in countries that are far away from the production point. This is mainly because almost all types of transportation have been stopped or reduced significantly. Where the fastest way to ship such equipment via airplanes it seems that most cargo planes are no longer flying.

So will ramping up production really solve the shortage of medical supplies?

In the short term it will not, and that is related to logistical problems mainly, so what can we do and are there any alternatives?

Biomedical Department Role

The fastest alternative is to be able to optimize the performance of the ventilators that are already there in the hospital. And here where the role of a biomedical department kicks in.

Doing the needed preventive maintenance procedure on time and making sure that the end-user is using the medical equipment properly is key to optimize the performance of any medical device. Also making sure that the device's software is updated to the newest software version will many times enhance the performance of a ventilator due to bug fixes or new features that were not available in the previous software versions.

In addition to this, the biomedical department can go one step further and see if there are any older ventilators lying around in the hospital warehouse and trey to get these to a working condition, although sometimes it might be time-consuming to do so in many cases some hospitals put aside there old medical devices to make room for the newer better equipped medical device that is packed with better features and abilities, but in situations of crises, such luxury is not an option as there are patients who might lose their lives if not put on life support.

What else can a biomedical engineer do?

Some countries are seriously considering turning to manufacture ventilators as the worldwide demand for ventilators has increased significantly that it is going to affect the time needed for the ventilators to reach these countries. So will these ventilators be FDA or CE approved?

Most likely not, but as mentioned earlier when you have the patient life of the line you will most probably not think about rules and regulations the same way. As there are hospitals now that are forced to connect 4 patients to 1 ventilator to keep them alive! In such situations, a biomedical engineer can be the key to a well-produced ventilator that can really save lives and last for years.

Also, there are companies that are considering the idea of starting to manufacture ventilators like Tesla and SpaceX. The question is will we need more manufacturers in the first place?

Sky-High Demand for Ventilators 

Well answering such a question will require having many parameters, but from the way, things are going so far, we will certainly need more ventilators. We need them fast and right where they are needed.

Drastic Measures Taken By Many Countries 

Corona Virus Disinfection to prevent it's spread

For example, China did a great job in trying to stop the spread of COVID-19, but what they did was an enormous effort starting from building containment hospitals within days and ending in stopping the export of any ventilator to outside China in addition to ordering 20000 ventilators, now India is heading to take the same measures. Italy is now seeking help from the army to cope with the high demand for ventilators needed to fight off the hight number of COVID-19 cases they have.

MPs from Britain and the EU are seriously asking car manufacturers to start manufacturing ventilators to mitigate the high surge in demand, which doesn't seem to be decreasing anytime soon. if production revamps are made to factories that are now stopped from production like Ford, Fiat Chrysler, General Motors, etc. the demand for ventilators can be met.

In such cases, these factories will have to get an already designed and certified from the medical companies who already have FDA/CE approved designs to be manufactured as soon as possible. Tech companies that produce high volumes of air conditions, refrigerators, and other appliances can also help in producing the needed ventilators.

Also, it would be smarter to produce the ventilators nearest to where they are needed rather than having to air fright them to the needed locations as air freight is now suffering from the COVID-19 outbreak. In other words, rather than manufacturing the ventilators in Germany for instance and then having to fly them to Italy, India or any other part of the world. Why not have these ventilators be manufactured in Italy in the first place?

Best Way to Produce  Ventilators

PCB Manual Soldering 

From the Biomedical point of view, it seems that the best-case scenario to cover the increasing demand on ventilators because od the COVID-19 pandemic is that medical supplies companies ramp up their production on ventilators even if that is going to be at the cost of other product lines that for the time being are not considered a priority and is already suffering low demand. Why it is considered the best scenario?

It is simply because they already know their craft well in addition to the fact that medical supplies manufacturing is not just having the right design and components but assembling them the right way to make them as safe as possible when they are next to a patient.

No Room for High Profits 

On the other hand, some ventilator manufacturers have expensive ventilators and that is usually because of the better quality and the stability of the systems they make also such expensive ventilators will also have the FDA and CE certificates. but now we come to another concern if a government needs 2000 ventilators and has a budget that will get them only 500 of the high niche ones. What to do in such a situation? Well, it seems pretty easy with the same budget you can buy 1500 ventilators that are not considered a high niche. Even though that government is still 500 ventilators short in numbers, but surely a shortage in 500 ventilators would be more bearable than a shortage in 1500 ventilators.

I'd like for all medical supplies companies that have a sky-high demand on their products to reduce prices on their products as it is not the right time to make piles of profits when there are many people's lives at stake. Moreover, reducing prices can give them a competitive edge on their competitors and thus increase their market share.

How to Reduce Costs?

Medical Devices are Expensive

Medical companies in such a situation can follow the Henry Ford Motto "A customer can have a car painted any color he wants as long as it's black". As many know that most ventilators have many features that are not related to their ability to support life. Many ventilators nowadays have touch screens and other features that for the time being are considered a luxury.

United we Stand

In many Sci-Fi Hollywood movies where there is an alien invasion, at the end of the movie humans win the fight but only after they join forces and collaborate to fight the alien. COVID-19 is no different than an alien invasion and from the way we see it, COVID-19 is putting whole humanity under a serious test, will we be able to put our differences aside to fight its spread?