NASA Gets FDA Approval for Cheaper Ventilator For Next Coronavirus Wave

NASA engineers say they have designed an FDA approved low-cost ventilator to treat coronavirus patients.

In only 37 days, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have created a ventilator known as VITAL — an acronym for Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally.

The ventilator uses only one-seventh of the parts needed to power a traditional ventilator, making it quicker to produce.

NASA officials are offering to free license the device to get it into hospitals quickly. They expect the need for the new ventilator to grow once stay-at-home orders are lifted around the country.

"Intensive-care units are seeing COVID-19 patients who require highly dynamic ventilators," Dr. J.D. Polk, NASA's chief health and medical officer, wrote in a press release.

"The intention with VITAL is to decrease the likelihood patients will get to that advanced stage of the disease and require more advanced ventilator assistance."

On Thursday, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine credited the agency for its invention.

"This ventilator is one of countless examples of how taxpayer investments in space exploration – the skills, expertise and knowledge collected over decades of pushing boundaries and achieving firsts for humanity – translate into advancements that improve life on Earth," Bridenstine said.

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