Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 31 2020, @02:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the DIY dept.

Professional Ventilator Design Open Sourced Today By Medtronic

Medical device company Medtronic released designs for one of their ventilators to open source for use in the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a laudable action, and there is plenty to glean from the specs (notable is that the planned release is incomplete as of this writing, so more info is on the way). Some initial reactions: medical devices are complicated, requirements specifications are enormous, the bill of materials (BOM) is gigantic, and component sourcing, supply chain, assembly, and testing are just as vital as the design itself.

The pessimist in me says that this design was open sourced for two reasons; to capitalize on an opportunity to get some good press, and to flex in front of the DIY community and convince them that the big boys should be the ones solving the ventilator shortage. The likelihood of anyone actually taking these specs and building it as designed are essentially zero for a variety of reasons, but let's assume their intent is to give a good starting point for newer changes. The optimist in me says that after what happened to California over the weekend with 170 ventilators arriving broken, it might be nice to have open designs to aid in repair of existing non-functioning ventilators.

The design details released today are for their PB560 model, which was originally launched in 2010 by a company called Covidien, before it merged with Medtronic, so we're already starting with a device design that's a decade old. But it's also a design that has proven itself through widespread use, and this data dump gives us a great look at what actually goes into one of these machines.

As one might suspect with a medical device, there are documents. Lots of documents! Among those supplied are: "Requirements Documents", "Electrical Schematics", and "Manufacturing Documents" and far more still remain:

Despite it being a dump of 53MB, there's quite a bit missing if you were trying to build this machine. However, Medtronic did mention in their press release that "...software code and other information will follow shortly." so there are more details on the way.

[...] we suspect that the amount of work that would be required to spin up assembly of this particular product is more than could be accomplished in the amount of time available, and the resources that would have to be mobilized are probably the same resources already working on building medical devices for other designs. The documentation around the release says any products released based on this are only to be used for COVID-19, so if anyone does manage to take this and use it to start production in a timely manner it will be both incredibly helpful, and super impressive.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday March 31 2020, @04:43PM (2 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Tuesday March 31 2020, @04:43PM (#977662)

    I forget the name of whatever they gave me, I think it may have been oxycontin or a relative, anyway... I had some "dissolvable" stitches in my thumbtip that didn't dissolve after 3 weeks and needed to be pulled out, in their semi-attached state, before they became an(other) pathway for infection. I had been getting by without pain meds, but during "therapy" when they removed the first stitch - that hurt plenty good, so I figured I'd be smart and take the pills to peak in effectiveness at the next therapy session. That time, they pulled three stitches - I didn't feel the pain on a conscious level, but the slower responses to the pain were all still there - so as stitch #3 came out, I had flop-sweat, grey complexion and maybe was on the verge of passing out, but I wasn't "feeling" the pain.

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 31 2020, @09:21PM (1 child)

    by Grishnakh (2831) on Tuesday March 31 2020, @09:21PM (#977790)

    That seems weird; why would you give someone pill-based pain medication for an in-office surgical procedure? Something on your thumbtip should be numbed with injections using a local anesthetic, not a pill.

    • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 01 2020, @12:45AM

      by JoeMerchant (3937) on Wednesday April 01 2020, @12:45AM (#977860)

      This was an OT office owned/operated by the surgeon. The whole setup was semi-corrupt, they weren't supposed to be doing therepeutic stuff like removing stitches or administering pain relief - I had the pain pills as a general use thing for post operative pain, but didn't use them for that- until it came to this removal of stitches that didn't dissolve. All in all, I was happier to have the stitches removed in therapy, rather than scheduling another office visit and padding this schmuck's pockets even more. I'm still pissed off that he left a bone chip in after surgery with a "well, let's wait and see if we get away with it" attitude. Of course it came out in a green puss ball 6 weeks later, and would have generated another surgical reimbursement for him if I hadn't expressed a preference to "just take care of it now" rather than going under general anesthesia, again, for something that doesn't really require it.

      --
      🌻🌻 [google.com]