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The Challenge: A Response To COVID-19

The Montreal General Hospital Foundation and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre launched an international design challenge during the Covid-19 pandemic : the Code Life Ventilator Challenge.

At a time when the planet feared a shortage of medical ventilators, engineers and scientists from around the world participated in a daring challenge. The goal : design a low-cost, simple, easy-to-use and easy-to-build ventilator in just two weeks.

The response was phenomenal!

Selection Of The Top Ventilator Prototypes

Leading critical care physicians, respiratory therapists, mechanical engineers and other experts selected the best prototypes based on criteria such as reliability, ease of manufacturing, adherence to compliance specifications, and modularity. The ventilators had to be reliable but simple enough to be deployed anywhere needed to save lives.

Following intensive testing of the top prototypes, the panel of expert advisors chose 3 finalist teams. Their ventilator designs and manufacturing packages are available for download and production here.

Prizes

The three finalists will receive $200,000, $100,000 and $50,000 CAD in compensation for their design and for sharing it with the world. The level of compensation will be determined by the extent to which the individual designs are used and produced in the next six months.

Next steps

As of now, we are focused on yielding a maximum of ventilators to help patients with COVID-19. Hence interested manufacturers can already connect with us so that we may share the manufacturing packages with them.

We are also preparing a second Challenge specifically to expedite refinement, cost-reduction, and regulatory compliance of the final designs. Stay tuned for more!

Several collaborators and sponsors have supported the Code Life Ventilator Challenge organizers throughout this journey.

Thank you to all for making the Challenge a success and congratulations to the finalists!