The ventilator market is an interesting one - there are many more vendors than in most other product categories, and greater product differentiation between vendors. This is also a product category where hospitals have, for the most part, been unsuccessful in standardizing on a single vendor.

I came across an interesting ventilator vendor the other day, eVent Medical. Their adult and neonatal ventilators are pictured right. Key features include:

• Invasive and noninvasive ventilation
• 5 hour battery life
• Emergency backup compressor
• Integral nebulizer
• Heliox gas support

What intrigued me about their product is the optional web server. The product has both serial and Ethernet network connectivity - obviously, a network connection is require to serve web pages. Remote surveillance has become important as ventilated patients are increasingly placed outside of critical care areas where nurse to patient ratios are lower and the patients covered by a respiratory therapist could be sprinkled widely across a hospital.

This feature suggests certain product architectures that could perhaps support some truly innovative and compelling patient safety and workflow automation features. I hope to learn more soon.