Via The Globe and Mail: Nobel laureate leads push for simple made-in-Canada ventilator. Excerpt:
Arthur McDonald, a Queen’s University professor who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physics, is leading an effort by Canadian scientists at two national laboratories to produce a stripped-down, easy-to-manufacture hospital ventilator in time to meet an urgent demand for the machines because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Researchers at the TRIUMF particle accelerator in Vancouver and the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories at Chalk River, Ont., are now aiming to complete two working prototypes of their ventilator, one at each location, over the coming week.
“We feel that every country is going to have to have its own made-in-country solution for ventilators," said Dr. McDonald, who is best known for his experimental work involving neutrinos, elusive particles produced in the core of the sun. “The idea is that the capability is here in the particle physics community. We’re just trying to exploit it.”
How well Canada comes through the COVID-19 pandemic will depend crucially on its supply of ventilators, the complex medical devices that are used to keep patients’ lungs supplied with oxygen when they are unable to breathe on their own.
Dr. McDonald said he became aware of a potential solution when approached by colleagues working with DarkSide, an international physics project based in Italy whose goal is to snare particles of dark matter. The experiment uses argon as its detection medium and its design requires electronic controllers that can precisely regulate gas flow – a capability that is also required of hospital ventilators.
Prompted by the escalating state of the pandemic in Italy, where it has already claimed more than 10,000 lives, Italian researchers on the experiment designed a ventilator last week that is optimized for mass production with inexpensive off-the-shelf parts. The device requires a source of compressed oxygen and electrical power to operate but little else. Unlike conventional ventilators, it has few mechanical parts. Controls and monitoring are contained within an electronics unit that can be accessed via WiFi.
“We need something simple that can be produced at the rate of thousands of units per day," said Cristiano Galbiati, a Princeton University professor who is currently in Milan leading the Italian design.
A prototype is now undergoing a battery of tests in Italy to assess how well it can maintain a patient’s breathing. Dr. Galbiati added that plans for the device will be available to anyone in the world who wants to build one.
“The only thing that is important, if the machine works, is to have it replicated as fast as possible,” he said. How many coronavirus cases are there in Canada, by province, and worldwide?
Dr. McDonald said he and his colleagues are now attempting to do exactly that, with modifications to the Italian design to ensure that all parts and materials can be accessed easily within Canada. He added that the Canadian teams are working rapidly and in close contact with each other as the number of severe cases of COVID-19 in the country continues to track upward.
