Helping the World Breathe Easier

NOVAMED team receives patent for low-cost emergency ventilator

Mechanical Engineering Professors C. Nataraj, PhD, Alfonso Ortega, PhD, and Garrett Clayton, PhD, along with Chris Townend, facilities manager for the College of Engineering, were awarded a patent in the fall for the development of a novel type of mechanical ventilator. Initially manufactured as an emergency alternative during the COVID-19 pandemic, this machine, called NovaVent, will now serve as a high-efficiency, low-cost device suitable for mitigating the global need for medical equipment.

“The need for this equipment goes beyond COVID-19,” Dr. Nataraj says. “Ventilators like NovaVent are critical parts of the medical infrastructure that are also needed to help the treatment of lung disease, cardiac arrest, strokes, brain injuries and more.”

Developed in collaboration with the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, NovaVent is made from widely accessible components to provide continuous mandatory ventilation (CMV) intended for patients incapable of breathing on their own. The patented design also controls tidal volume, a vital component to providing enough ventilation to a patient while preventing lung trauma. Settings can be adjusted through the control panel, and alarms will sound if the correct conditions are not met. The NovaVent supplies CMV at a rate of roughly 90% of expensive high-end ventilators, while saving tens of thousands of dollars in production costs, Dr. Nataraj says.

NovaVent is the first patented technology to come from NOVAMED, an interdisciplinary lab dedicated to developing open-source, affordable and globally available medical technologies.

“We are looking forward to working with like-minded partners to make such critical, life-saving technology affordable to all people,” Dr. Nataraj says.