Ventilator News and Research

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MTU engineering experts join open-source ventilator movement to overcome COVID-19

As COVID-19 continues to spread, the research community is looking for solutions. In addition to work on vaccines and medicine, medical technology is needed. In severe cases of COVID-19, the disease attacks the respiratory system, and one of the major bottlenecks in treatment is having enough ventilators.

22 Mar 2020

Strategies for allocating stockpiled ventilators to healthcare facilities during a pandemic

Key factors must be taken into account in determining the need for and allocation of scarce ventilators during a severe pandemic, especially one causing respiratory illness.

22 Mar 2020

Mask shortage straps pharmacists who need them to keep medicines pure

Pharmacy staff who prepare IV drugs inside hospitals are the latest health care workers decrying a shortage of masks as they scramble to prepare medications for patients with everything from cancer to COVID-19.

20 Mar 2020

As coronavirus spreads widely, millions of older Americans live in counties with no ICU beds

More than half the counties in America have no intensive care beds, posing a particular danger for more than 7 million people who are age 60 and up - older patients who face the highest risk of serious illness or death from the rapid spread of COVID-19, a Kaiser Health News data analysis shows.

20 Mar 2020

Anesthesia standards for coronavirus-infected patients requiring emergency surgery

Physicians describe the standardized procedure of surgical anesthesia for patients with COVID-19 infection requiring emergency surgery to minimize the risk of virus spread and reduce lung injury in a Letter to the Editor published in Surgical Infections, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers.

16 Mar 2020

Music appears to decrease delirium in critically ill patients

It is common for critically ill patients on life support to develop delirium, a form of acute brain failure for which no effective treatment is known.

10 Mar 2020

During a pandemic, states’ patchwork of crisis plans could mean uneven care

A possible coronavirus pandemic could overwhelm the nation's hospitals and force doctors into difficult decisions about how to allocate limited resources. Yet, experts say, only a handful of states have done the work necessary to prepare for such worst-case scenarios.

5 Mar 2020

The changing face of the COVID-19 epidemic

The SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) virus, which hit China with the disease now named COVID-19 in December 2019 and has since spread to over 70 countries, has caused over 90,000 cases, and 3,117 fatalities, with 95% or more of both being in China.

2 Mar 2020

Potential method for better treatment of premature babies

A new study published in the journal Immunology in February 2020 reports the discovery of a process that occurs in the body naturally, but which enhances the production of type 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in the lung alveoli of premature babies. These are sentinel cells that keep the mucosal surfaces clean and healthy. They are crucial to building resistance to infection within the human body.

18 Feb 2020

In-home breathing device may offer hope for people with COPD

In a new paper published Feb. 4 in JAMA, Mayo Clinic researchers describe the benefits of in-home noninvasive ventilation therapy- which includes a type referred to as bilevel positive airway pressure, or BiPAP- for many patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

4 Feb 2020

Why home health care is suddenly harder to come by for Medicare patients

The decision came out of the blue. "Your husband isn't going to get any better, so we can't continue services," an occupational therapist told Deloise "Del" Holloway in early November. "Medicare isn't going to pay for it."

3 Feb 2020

Lung microbes could help predict outcomes in the seriously ill

A new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine shows that recording the way the organisms living within the lungs change in type and numbers could reflect the response of the critically ill patient to medical care. Though changes in the lung microbiome have been known to exist even before this study, this research shows the clinical importance of this test.

23 Jan 2020

$Researchers evaluate the success of surgical stabilization of rib fractures$

Researchers evaluate the success of surgical stabilization of rib fractures

When an arm snaps, a leg cracks or a wrist twists, physicians set the bone to ensure it heals properly and with as little discomfort to the patient as possible. But the same cannot be said for most rib fractures.

21 Jan 2020

Lung microbiome of critically ill patients is predictive of clinical outcomes

Changes in the lung microbiome may help predict how well critically ill patients will respond to care, according to new research published online in the American Thoracic Society's American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

21 Jan 2020

Prolonged breath-holding could have potential as part of new treatment for cardiac arrhythmias

A technique that enables patients suffering from heart conditions to hold their breath safely for over 5 minutes could have potential as part of a new treatment for cardiac arrhythmias, say researchers at the University of Birmingham.

20 Jan 2020

Lung Rescue Team at MGH reduces mortality risk in obese patients with acute respiratory failure

A specialized Lung Rescue Team established by clinicians at Massachusetts General Hospital to evaluate and treat patients with obesity receiving mechanical ventilation [MV] due to acute respiratory failure has significantly reduced the risk of mortality compared to standard treatment.

16 Jan 2020

Technology protects respiratory tract of intubated neonates

A new artificial model of premature infants will make possible experiments that are expected to reduce injury to infants on respirators.

13 Jan 2020

High-deductible plans jeopardize financial health of patients and rural hospitals

Kristie Flowers had been sick with the flu for four or five days in July before the 52-year-old registered nurse from Genoa, Colo., acknowledged she needed to go to the ER.

10 Jan 2020

New software helps prevent ICU delirium and improve patient outcomes

Intensive care unit delirium, a fertile area of clinical research and patient care innovation associated with Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is beginning to reshape how commercial electronic health record systems are engineered with regard to intensive care.

22 Dec 2019

Analysis shows link between high psychological safety and adoption of infection prevention practices

Hospitals reporting high levels of psychological safety are more likely to have comprehensive infection prevention and control programs, according to the results of a survey appearing in the American Journal of Infection Control, the journal of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, published by Elsevier.

16 Dec 2019