BiPAP, machines — typically used to help
people with sleep apnea breathe evenly at
night — as low-level ventilators. The adapters
played into the modified setup they had
in mind for the machines.
Led by Edmundo Rubio, Carilion’s chief
of pulmonology and critical care medicine
and a professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion
School of Medicine, the staff worked
out a setup that would involve a BiPAP
machine delivering oxygen to an intubated
patient. As the patient exhaled, that breath
and the virus particles it carried would exit
through an exhalation port that branched
from the tubing. The staff would attach the
adapter to the port, and to the adapter, they
would attach a standard filter to trap virus
particles, preventing them from escaping
into the room.
They had initially assembled an adapter
with parts on hand, fixing 22-millimeter
connectors onto both ends of a 4-millimeter
connector. The three-piece device did
the trick, with the latter part doing extra
work to slow exhaled air flow out of the
filter. But it would be problematic to assemble
more devices that way. Each time, they
would have to pull the parts from multiple
sterilized kits and throw out other valuable
components. Using three different parts to
assemble the device also lent to tiny cracks
— and the risk of leaking the virus.
The DREAMS team’s task was to combine
the three parts into one and produce
many more Carilion-approved, streamlined
adapters in a few weeks, for use in BiPAP
ventilation along with other forms of oxygen
therapy. Graduate students Lindsey
Bezek, Bemnet Molla, Sam Pratt, and Gural
broke off onto parallel manufacturing paths
to try filament extrusion printing, selective
laser sintering, and machining the device.
In this case, machining gave the device a
smoother seal and faster production — it
would take about two to three minutes to
make each one. The team headed down that
path.
Less than
Pratt drop
Carilion st
As the des
and regula
mechanica
Ng and his
prepare to
This pro
entific inte
of design,
patient saf
and prepar
has define
Virginia T
have work
the past m
In mid-M
group split
ects in rap
ing togeth
medical pr
tective equ
and the in
The grou
like produ
science, bi
tion, from
the Colleg
Science, th
of Medicin
search Ins
chitecture
ies. The gr
Via Colleg
“We’re a
spond,” sai
organize th
to pull eve
capabilitie
coordinati
resources a
tributed to
tion, their
ment and