A new high-pressure ventilator developed by NASA engineers and tailored to treat coronavirus (COVID-19) patients passed a critical test Tuesday at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, an epicenter of COVID-19 in the United States.
The device, called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), was developed by engineers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech manages for NASA, in Southern California to free up the nation's limited supply of traditional ventilators so they may be used on patients with the most severe COVID-19 symptoms.
"We specialize in spacecraft, not medical-device manufacturing," said JPL Director Michael Watkins. "But excellent engineering, rigorous testing and rapid prototyping are some of our specialties. When people at JPL realized they might have what it takes to support the medical community and the broader community, they felt it was their duty to share their ingenuity, expertise and drive."
