The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge of patients requiring mechanical ventilation in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) rooms. Consequently, the units now require increased staffing of trained respiratory therapists in addition to more ventilators. Every small change on a ventilator requires staff to enter a patient room, which risks potential exposure, and to frequently change personal protective equipment. However, a collaboration between the US-based Johns Hopkins Hospital, Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics and the University of Maryland led to the innovation of a robotic system to remotely control ventilators in COVID-19 patient rooms.
