Assessment of open-source, intermediate and ICU ventilators to face the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

comprising disciplines allied to intensive care (such as anaesthesiology) will be important for recruitment during any kind of crisis wherein intensive care medicine is challenged. Harmonised education and training permit international mobility of all-rounder intensive care physicians from multiple disciplines. In Austria, this system proved particularly resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic. In many parts of the country, ICUs were occupied with COVID-19 critically ill patients and intensive care medicine was delivered in recovery rooms and even operating theatres. As most elective surgery was postponed during this time, intensive care patients could be treated by specialists in anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine who primarily work in operating theatres. This strategy helped to cope with the pandemic in face of severely limited intensive care resources and effectively avoided situations of triage even at the peaks of the pandemic. In contrast, primary intensive care physicians are not rapidly recruitable in crises.