Using Simulation to Develop Solutions for Ventilator Shortages From the Epicenter

Abstract

Supplemental digital content is available in the text.

Health Care Simulation as a Training Tool for Epidemic Management

“…The study characteristics are presented in the Table 1. Most of the studies on simulation-based training were developed in response to SARS-CoV-2 (n = 117, 79.1%) 6–8,16–128 . Eighteen were motivated by Ebola outbreaks (12.2%), 129–146 7 by influenza (4.7%), 147–153 3 by MERS (2%), 154–156 and 3 by pandemics in general (2%) 157–159 …”

Collaborative Use of Lung Mechanics Simulation for Testing and Iterative Design for Three Emergency Use Ventilation Device Projects

“…There are many lung simulators available, ranging from simple test lungs and purely mechanical lung simulators to complex mannequin simulators and advanced electromechanical and computer-controlled pulmonary mechanics simulators, with varying capacities for data collection and presentation. During the pandemic, teams around the world used lung simulators for diverse purposes—many primarily for just-in-time training of clinical staff—but others to repurpose or upgrade existing ventilators (including the creative testing of the use of a single ventilator between 2 patients) 3 in addition to the development of emergency use ventilation devices 21–25 …”

“…Collaboration and rapid iteration were key for progress to be made, and many in the simulation community contributed to innovation in the care of COVID-19 patients worldwide. [1][2][3] In this article, we describe collaborations with engineering, clinical, and simulation colleagues to use a lung mechanics simulator (IngMar Medical ASL 5000) to aid in the development of 3 open-source ventilation devices for patients with COVID- 19. In the initial stages of the pandemic, when a high proportion of patients were being mechanically ventilated, there were concerns that any given locale might not have enough ventilators to treat surging numbers of hospitalized patients. 4,5 Many initiatives were launched throughout the world to stimulate the design and production of open-source low-cost ventilators to address these needs in both low-resource and high-resource locations.…”

“…The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented amount of research, development, and innovation across the spectrum of clinical sciences, devices, and care protocols. Collaboration and rapid iteration were key for progress to be made, and many in the simulation community contributed to innovation in the care of COVID-19 patients worldwide 1–3 …”