The nationwide shortage of ventilators for patients with severe COVID-19 and other respiratory illness is sparking rapid investigation into alternate solutions. One possible solution is engineering existing ventilators to treat more than one patient at a time – a solution David Kaczka, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Biomedical Engineering, and Radiology, is working on now.

Some hospitals already are using single ventilators for two patients at a time, but the experimental coupling hasn’t yet been proven safe or effective, Kaczka says.

“It’s a pretty tricky engineering problem. The volume of gas isn’t always uniformly distributed to each patient on a single ventilator, and each patient’s needs are different,” he says. “It requires some adjustment to how you deliver ventilation and what you do with the exhaled gases. You can’t just vent them out into the atmosphere because then you risk further contamination and virus spread.”

Kaczka and post-doctoral research fellow Andrea Fonseca da Cruz, PhD, are experimenting with supplemental devices that could be attached to existing ventilators. Ideally, these devices could customize ventilation from a single device for up to four patients at a time.

“That’s what we’re testing right now,” Kaczka says. “Yes, you can do it; but it isn’t very straightforward from an engineering standpoint.”

The device is called a Positive End Expiratory Pressure (PEEP) manifold and inspiratory pressure regulator. It could be 3D-printed to expedite the manufacturing process.