Authors:
Andrea Bombarda
1
;
Sara Millefiori
1
;
Michela Penzo
1
;
Luca Novelli
2
and
Angelo Gargantini
1
Affiliations:
1
Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, University of Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy
;
2
Pulmonary medicine Unit, ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo, Italy
Keyword(s):
Mobile Application, Mechanical Ventilation, Application Prototype, Training.
Abstract:
Mechanical ventilation is essential for critically ill patients, as recently demonstrated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The experience of physicians in correctly selecting ventilation parameters and values plays a crucial role in ensuring the best possible outcome. In order to aid physicians in setting up a mechanical ventilator, several brands have implemented in their products an adaptive ventilation mode called Adaptive Support Ventilation (ASV). This mode automatically selects pressure and respiratory rate to require the patient the minimum breathing effort possible. However, physicians are generally skeptical about adopting this ventilation mode, as they prefer to have all parameters under their control. Nevertheless, we believe that comprehending how ASV works is paramount important, to understanding the patterns used, and possibly exploiting them while manually setting mechanical ventilators. For this reason, in this paper, we present Ventilation App, an Android app for training n
ew physicians in mechanical ventilation. It allows the simulation of a ventilation process for a patient unable to breathe and gives feedback to the user by exploiting the same operating principles of the ASV mode. Thanks to the feedback received by a collaborating physician, we believe that our app can be useful for allowing physicians-in-training to acquire proficiency in mechanical ventilation.
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