Villanova Team Develops Low-Cost Emergency Ventilator

VILLANOVA, PA — A team of researched at Villanova University has developed a low-cost emergency ventilator that could be instrumental in helping coronavirus patients.

Villanova engineering professor Dr. C. Nataraj assembled a team of 20 faculty and students in early April to come up with a way to produce a ventilator.

Recently, the team, which also included experts from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Geisinger Health System, completed the prototype of the NovaVent, a machine that automatically compresses an airbag (called an Ambu bag) and links to a ventilator circuit that includes a component for intubation.

According to the school, the team is working with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development to get the ventilator manufactured by local idle businesses for less than $1,000.

The ventilator could be integral in the United States or in low-income countries where ventilators are in desperately short supply in the event of a second wave of the coronavirus.