On Apr. 24, 2020, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) announced that a research team led by Albert Chi, M.D., M.S.E., an OHSU trauma surgeon, had developed a low-cost ventilator that can be widely produced with 3D-printing technology. Chi previously pioneered 3D-printed prosthetics for children.

Albert Chi, M.D., M.S.E., an OHSU trauma surgeon who previously pioneered 3D-printed prosthetics for children, lead the effort. As COVID-19 spread inexorably across the globe, health care workers worried that they would run short of ventilators needed to keep the sickest patients alive.

“The goal is to provide it for free to whoever needs it,” said Chi, an associate professor of surgery (trauma, critical care and acute care surgery) in the OHSU School of Medicine.

The design is so straightforward that it doesn’t require electricity, only the type of standard oxygen tank broadly available at hospitals and clinics worldwide. Depending on the printer, a single ventilator can be manufactured within three to eight hours and made operational with the addition of low-cost springs available at any hardware store. The low-tech ventilators can be replicated anywhere in the world for less than $10 of material.

In addition, the team worked in collaboration with the 3D-printing technology firms Stratasys, Sherpa Design, and the University of Central Florida-based nonprofit organization Limbitless Solutions to produce prototypes. The team also got an assist from Oregon-based Nike, which helped by 3D-printing the team’s design.