TY - JOUR
T1 - PytuTester
T2 - RaspberryPi open-source ventilator tester
AU - Morales, Félix
AU - Bernal, Luis
AU - Pereira, Gustavo
AU - Pérez-Buitrago, Sandra
AU - Kammer, Michael
AU - Stalder, D. H.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)
PY - 2022/10
Y1 - 2022/10
N2 - PytuTester is an open-source ventilator tester developed to help bio-engineers in the design and verification of new ventilator prototypes. A ventilator tester allows measuring the flow, pressure, volume, and oxygen concentration provided to the patient. During the global pandemic COVID-19, several open-source ventilators prototypes were developed; however, due to high cost and demand testers, they were not available. In this context, a low-cost tester was developed using a Raspberry Pi and medical-grade sensors for the test ventilators prototypes. This paper presents the design files, software interface, and validations tests. Our results indicate that the tester has good accuracy to evaluate the efficacy and performance of new prototypes. When tested on two ventilator designs developed in Paraguay, PytuTester reported flow profiles that were concordant with the industry-standard VT650 Gas Flow Analyzer. PytuTester was then field deployed to test several DIY ventilator designs in low-resource areas.
AB - PytuTester is an open-source ventilator tester developed to help bio-engineers in the design and verification of new ventilator prototypes. A ventilator tester allows measuring the flow, pressure, volume, and oxygen concentration provided to the patient. During the global pandemic COVID-19, several open-source ventilators prototypes were developed; however, due to high cost and demand testers, they were not available. In this context, a low-cost tester was developed using a Raspberry Pi and medical-grade sensors for the test ventilators prototypes. This paper presents the design files, software interface, and validations tests. Our results indicate that the tester has good accuracy to evaluate the efficacy and performance of new prototypes. When tested on two ventilator designs developed in Paraguay, PytuTester reported flow profiles that were concordant with the industry-standard VT650 Gas Flow Analyzer. PytuTester was then field deployed to test several DIY ventilator designs in low-resource areas.
KW - Low-cost
KW - Medical hardware
KW - Open source
KW - Pandemic COVID-19
KW - Ventilator tester
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133948632&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00334
DO - 10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00334
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85133948632
SN - 2468-0672
VL - 12
JO - HardwareX
JF - HardwareX
M1 - e00334
ER -