The iFixit community is asking for help obtaining ventilator repair manuals amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. iFixit is building a database of repair information about hospital equipment but it needs help.
Heroic medical teams around the world are either dealing directly with or preparing for an onslaught. The American Hospital Association forecasts predict that COVID-19’s impact will be unprecedented. They anticipate that 4.8 million patients may be hospitalized, with 1.9 million of those admitted to the ICU, and 960,000 requiring ventilatory support. The Society of Critical Care Medicine anticipates that U.S. hospitals could absorb between 26,000 and 56,000 additional ventilators during the pandemic. Ventilators are machines that mechanically breathe for patients who are too weak to breathe for themselves. With COVID-19, many patients develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)… We are learning from China and Italy that these crucial ventilators are being heavily utilized—many ventilators are running non-stop… Due to heavy use and accelerated wear and tear, these lifesaving machines are breaking down.
Biomedical technicians (biomeds for short) are the repair experts at hospitals, and in many regions they are stretched thin. There are a wide variety of machines made by a number of different manufacturers at hospitals around the world, and there is no single resource for how to repair all of them… Biomed forums are frequently populated with requests for specific PDF service manuals.
Our biomed technicians’ time is too precious to waste on internet Easter-egg hunts. iFixit is building a central resource for maintenance and repair of hospital equipment. We need help from fixers everywhere, medical professionals, and biomedical technicians to make sure this is as robust, relevant, and useful as possible.
MacDailyNews Take: Thank you, iFixit for thinking of this idea, organizing these ventilator repair manuals, and executing this herculean task! Find out what is needed from the medical community and from everyone else who want to help here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Ladd” for the heads up.]