April 17, 2020 Ventlife Low Cost Ventilator Initiative

Non-profit VentLife researches, prototypes, develops, and distributes low-cost, clinically effective ventilators for COVID-19 patients.

VentLife, a non-profit under the umbrella group the Giving Back Fund, has developed a novel mechanical ventilator specifically targeted to meet the needs of COVID-19 patients. Based on input from over a dozen medical doctors, engineers, and entrepreneurs, the ventilator design drastically reduces the complexity and costliness of prototyping, clinical testing, and manufacturing. VentLife is seeking funding and partnerships to bring this device to market as soon as possible to address the worldwide emergency.

The VentLife team is led by Glen Meyerowitz, a former Space X engineer, now a graduate student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. “COVID-19 is ravaging fragile health care systems across the globe,” he says. “There are not enough ventilators to support the current, and upcoming, number of COVID-!9 patients in the U.S. and abroad. Part of the reason for the shortage of equipment is the complexity of current ventilators – most ventilators are designed to cover 99% of respiratory ailments. Building a ventilator exclusively to treat COVID-19 eliminates much of the complexity in the design and manufacturing process. “The VentLife team, have built a working benchtop model from easily sourced materials that can be manufactured, tested, and mass produced quickly,” Meyerowitz says. “And quickly is what the global healthcare system needs.”

You can learn more about the project, team, and how to donate through their site, https://www.ventlife.org/ , and donate through one of their crowdsourcing channels: Indigogo: https://lnkd.in/gW-Fm8K & WeFunder: https://wefunder.com/VentLife or donate right through their site: https://www.ventlife.org/donate.

Glen Meyerowitz

Jason Kleinhenz

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