MIT researchers hope to publish open-source designs for a low-cost respirator that could potentially help Covid-19 patients struggling with critical respiratory problems.

The motorized device automatically compresses widely available bag valve masks, the sort of manual resuscitator used by ambulance crews to assist patients with breathing problems. The designs could arrive as a growing number of engineers, medical students, and hobbyists attempt to build or share specifications for makeshift respirators—of unknown quality and safety—amid rising fears of widespread shortages as the coronavirus epidemic escalates.

You can read all our coverage of the coronavirus/Covid-19 outbreak for free, and also sign up for our coronavirus newsletter. But please consider subscribing to support our nonprofit journalism.

The team recently launched a website unveiling the MIT Emergency Ventilator Project, or E-Vent, which now states the device "is being submitted" to the Food and Drug Administration for rapid review under an “Emergency Use Authorization.” Last week, MIT Technology Review was informed the team intended to test the devices on pigs in recent days, though it’s still unclear what the results were.

“At present, we are awaiting FDA feedback," one member of the team told MIT News. “Ultimately, our intent is to seek FDA approval. That process takes time, however.”

It’s also not clear if the team has yet fully answered the fundamental question of the project: Is it possible to safely ventilate a Covid-19 patient by automatically actuating a manual resuscitator?

If that answer is yes, the hope is that openly publishing the designs, test results, and related medical information could enable those with the necessary manufacturing capacity and expertise to produce reliable, safe, and affordable respirators. Even so, the site stresses the device should be operated only under the supervision of trained medical professionals and is not a replacement for an FDA-approved intensive care unit ventilator “in terms of functionality, flexibility, and clinical efficacy.”

“The MIT E-Vent is anticipated to have utility in helping free up existing supply or in life-or-death situations when there is no other option,” the site adds.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota are developing a similar device, which also relies on automating the pumping of "ambu" bags. They also hope to soon publish open-source designs, according to reporting in the Star Tribune.

The MIT project dates back to about a decade ago, when a group of MIT students in the Precision Machine Design course developed a proof-of-principle version of the machine, working with Jussi Saukkonen of Boston University Medical Center. They published a paper on the device, but never moved forward with production.

They designed it mainly as a tool for rural areas in developing nations, which have high levels of chronic respiratory issues but limited access to mechanical ventilators. Even then, though, they noted it could also serve an important role in the US in the event of a wide-scale pandemic like the one now unfolding.