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As the nation was gripped with fear in the early phase of the coronavirus pandemic last year, top doctors zeroed in on one particular concern: a potentially catastrophic shortage of ventilators.
The projected shortfall was about 75,000 at the time.
The soaring demand for these life-saving medical devices prompted a group of inventive service members from inside and outside the Military Health System to set in motion a highly unusual - and highly successful - effort to solve that problem.
The "Hack-a-Vent" challenge called for volunteers to create an inexpensive, non-FDA-approved ventilator that could be made with off-the-shelf items available at home supply or auto parts stores, or via 3D printers.
The evolution of the "Hack-a-Vent" program, initially launched under the auspices of Special Operations Command, spotlights the rapid innovation sparked by the pandemic and how the MHS has relied on outside-the-box thinking to meet the needs of the military community.
The challenge, launched in March 2020, was to design ventilators that would be portable, smaller than traditional ventilators, not use any parts from commercial ventilators, and cost less than $300 each. The commercial ventilators that hospitals typically use cost from $10,000 to $15,000 apiece.
The Defense Health Agency's COVID-19 Joint Acquisition Task Force took up the challenge in late March and created a rapid-response team of medical professionals and engineers. The Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City Division (NSWC PCD) was one group that took on the ventilator challenge. Leveraging the funding and material resources provided by NSWC PCD's Center for Innovation, a team began work on this critical effort right away.
At NSWC PCD, mechanical, electrical, and systems engineers, along with diving and life support subject matter experts, created a functional design within a week.
It "didn't have all the bells and whistles, but was easy to use by doctors," said Andrew Schicho, an engineer and one of the design leaders.
A second iteration was designed by March 31 under round two of the challenge, he said.
On April 5, the project was funded. The designed ventilator by now had LCD displays, electronic feedback control, oxygen-level monitors, and a breathing loop. By late April, the team's prototype was in animal model testing.
"So, we had a functioning medical device in one month," Schicho said.
"We kept ours as cheap as possible in order to honor the original intent of the program and keep the design accessible to low-dollar efforts," Schicho said. The dollar amounts for vent designs were upped from $300 to $500 and then to $1,000 as more features were added.