New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan that will produce bridge ventilators to support local hospitals and health care workers.
Through this effort, local manufacturers will produce at least 3,000 bridge ventilators, which will be deployed to hospitals in the fight against COVID-19. Those that are unused will be stored in the city’s Strategic Reserve, a stockpile of medical devices that will be ready for any future crisis.
“This is a story about doing the impossible – so it’s a New York story,” de Blasio said. “We’d never made a ventilator before – and so we made thousands. We learned it would take a year – and so we did it in a month. Our city is taking our future into our own hands. That’s how we’ll beat this crisis and prepare for the next.”
Bridge ventilators can replace manually operated bag valve masks and serve patients coming on or off traditional ventilators. These machines will free up critical care and ICU ventilators needed for those who are seriously ill. The effort was spearheaded by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC). The EDC formed a partnership with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) along with Boyce Technologies, Newlab, 10XBeta and Otherlab to scale up production of the bridge ventilators.
“During this unprecedented crisis, we’ve seen the strength, creativity , and resilience of New York City,” said James Patchett, president and CEO of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. “This city-led partnership demonstrates New York’s ability to act and innovate quickly. In record time, we’ve been able to design and produce life-saving technology. This project highlights the very best of New York City and we’re proud to be a part of it.”
EDC provided a seed grant of $100,000 to adapt and prototype the ventilator design. The devices are less expensive than traditional ventilators.