Simulated lungs enable respiratory care training for COVID-19

As a large proportion of critically ill COVID-19 patients require breathing assistance, medical staff around the world have turned to ventilators in the fight to save lives.

TestChest® is the solution behind testing of new ventilators and providing training for healthcare professionals.

It was quickly understood that basic ventilators are insufficient for the needs of a COVID-19 patient, and advanced mechanical ventilators require highly trained and experienced operators. Dr. Josef Brunner has decades of experience in ventilation development, including work for the likes of NASA and Hamilton Medical. He explains that ventilation management cannot be done by simply following a protocol, and indeed there are not comprehensive protocols available. The complex interaction between the patient individual condition and the multitude of ventilator settings translates to almost infinite possible outcomes. Expertise is therefore everything in respiratory care.

Yet, we find ourselves in the situation where medical professionals need to make critical decisions about ventilator requirements for patients suffering from a disease that is completely new. This is lifesaving care and the urgency for training have never been greater.

TestChest® is a physiologically accurate lung simulator that replicates the evolution of COVID-19 as well as the recovery process. The core innovative technology was developed by Swiss company Organis GmbH a decade ago, and TestChest® training cases have been extended to include recent pathophysiology data of patients infected with COVID-19. Compatible with all mechanical ventilators, it also supports both nasal and bag mask ventilation. Physiological reactions of TestChest® are completely autonomous, reacting to the settings of a ventilator and displaying vital statistics such as blood saturation levels.

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and one of the world's largest and most respected centres for scientific research, use TestChest® to test the functionality of their newly developed ventilators. For there is no other solution that could compete with TestChest® on the physiological accuracy of the human lung.

Quick Facts:

• TestChest® is an autonomous adult lung simulator

• It can be connected to any mechanical ventilator

• Recent COVID-19 patient data has been added to training cases

• Also used for testing new ventilators being developed in response to COVID-19

About TestChest®

TestChest® is an autonomous adult lung simulator that connects to any mechanical ventilator, developed by Swiss-based Organis GmbH, and now commercialized through Neosim AG. To learn more about TestChest®, contact Josef Brunner, PhD, co-founder of Organis GmbH and Neosim AG via jxb@neosim.ch.