The Vent Multiplexor is a patent-pending emergency co-ventilation device intended to provide individualized temporary rescue mechanical ventilation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Developed in collaboration with Yale-New Haven Hospital and granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA on April 15, 2020, the Vent Multiplexor has the potential to help reduce the clinical need for ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it permits the emergency sharing of ventilators between two patients who are not equally matched, by delivering individualized tidal volumes, while also providing critical validation data on the quality of patient matching using existing “T-connector” and similar ventilator splitting technologies, a potentially revolutionary paradigm shift in the delivery of pandemic emergency respiratory care.
BEACON VENT MULTIPLEXOR
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor is a powerful ventilator support solution to guide hospitals, healthcare providers, and patients at a time when critical care experience and knowledge are at a premium.
There are a wide variety of ventilator systems currently in use due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many with limited capabilities. The Beacon Vent Multiplexor can monitor any ventilator, regardless of the performance, design, or capability, and provide crucial insight into advanced physiologic parameters while advising on how to best optimize ventilator parameters and delivering ventilation advice in a clear and easy-to-use graphical format.
Monitor Any Ventilator System
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor serves as an emergency bridge when ventilators are in short supply, by allowing one critical care ventilator to ventilate two patients, while delivering individualized therapy to each. The Beacon Vent Multiplexor enables adherence to low tidal volume ARDSnet compliant ventilator strategies during split ventilation. Developed in collaboration with Yale New Haven Hospital, the Vent Multiplexor has been tested and successfully deployed with patients in clinical settings.
Expand Ventilator Capacity
Monitor the Performance of Any Ventilator
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor can monitor any ventilator including novel ventilator designs, lower cost substitutes, FEMA provided ventilators, pandemic ventilators, and repurposed production capacity like home CPAP machines and anesthesia ventilators.
Expand Ventilator Capacity
Utilizing the Beacon Vent Multiplexor, one critical care ventilator can be split on an emergency basis to provide individualized care by controlling the tidal volume delivered to each patient.
Enhance Clinical Capabilities
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor provides easy-to-use monitoring for numerous physiological parameters, many of which are more advanced than even the most sophisticated critical care ventilators.
Optimize ICU Staffing
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor can assist hospitals in supporting non-critical care trained doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists when working in any critical care setting.
Clinically Tested
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor consists of the Beacon Monitoring Platform, which received FDA approval in 2019, as well as the Vent Multiplexor Kit, which received FDA emergency use authorization in April 2020.
An Affordable Solution
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor delivers advanced monitoring across the entire inventory of ventilator devices, with recommended coverage of one system for each ten ICU beds, while providing emergency split ventilation capacity, all with pricing starting at $10,000.
Beacon Vent Multiplexor is used to track ventilation efficacy for each patient:
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Measure actual Vt delivered to patient
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VO2/VCO2 measurement
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Gas exchange impairment (SHUNT, Low V/Q & High V/Q etc) in order to set optimal PEEP Etc
Waveform Screen
Connect Beacon Vent Multiplexor and monitor the waveforms of what is delivered to the patient. This will give you a "ventilator monitor" per patient
The waveform screen shows the following information:
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Ppeak, Pplat, VO2 and VCO2 as values
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Pressure (cmH2O) and Flow (l/min) as waveforms- automatically adjusted
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The current ventilator settings
Monitoring
Beacon Vent Multiplexor has build-in physiological monitoring. Connect Beacon Vent Multiplexor and monitor the physiological progression of the patient
With the physiological monitoring screen you can monitor the physiological variables of the patient:
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FetCO2 and FeCO2 measurements
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Anatomical (Vd-ana) and Alveolar (Vd-alv) deadspace measurements
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VO2 and VCO2 measurements
The Gas Exchange information screen displays the estimated (measured) SHUNT, Low V/Q and High V/Q for the patient
Optimizing Nutrition for the Covid-19 patient
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VO2 - is the measured Oxygen Consumption of the patient
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VCO2 - is the produced Carbon Dioxide production of the patient
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REE - is the calculated Resting Energy Expenditure of the patient, based on the VO2 and VCO2 measurements
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RQ - is the calculated difference between VO2 and VCO2
For VO2 and VCO2, the average Variable in % is shown over a time window of 30 minutes
For REE, the current REE is shown and average REE is shown over a time window of 30 minutes
Beacon Vent Multiplexor FAQs
How does the Beacon Vent Multiplexor work?
By inserting a simple component in between the endotracheal tube and the ventilator tubing, The Beacon Vent Multiplexor is able to monitor the patient and ventilator in real time and provide key feedback on ventilator management. The Beacon Vent Multiplexor works with any ventilator system and can be used immediately without any complex installation or training. The Beacon Vent Multiplexor is able to monitor both the inspiratory and expiratory components of the respiratory cycle, providing crucial information on both delivered therapy and the patient response to this delivered therapy.
Does the Beacon Vent Multiplexor work with all ventilators?
Yes, the Beacon Vent Multiplexor works with all ventilators, from the most advanced critical care ventilators to pandemic emergency ventilators, and everything in between. Regardless of the ventilator used, the Beacon Vent Multiplexor is able to provide advanced feedback on the quality of mechanical ventilation, real time monitoring, and advanced physiologic parameters that would otherwise only be available in a physiology laboratory.
What clinical parameters does the Beacon Vent Multiplexor Monitor?
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor is able to monitor all of the standard physiologic parameters included in any critical care ventilator, in addition to advanced physiologic parameters. This allows for close monitoring of any ventilator used by a hospital or institution, regardless of the intrinsic capabilities of these ventilators. Moreover, through monitoring advanced parameters such as V/Q matching, shunt, in addition to metabolic parameters and dead space, the Beacon Vent Multiplexor is able to provide clinicians with crucial information to guide patient therapy.
How does the Beacon Vent Multiplexor provide ventilation strategy advice?
During routine ventilation and through the collection of clinician-provided information such as blood gas values, the Beacon Vent Multiplexor is able to optimize ventilatory parameters using the 6 cardinal parameters of avoiding acidosis, atrophy, lung stress, lung trauma, hypoxemia, and oxygen toxicity. Balancing each of these parameters with real time feedback to the clinician, the Beacon Vent Multiplexor is able to provide suggestions on how to optimize delivered ventilatory therapy throughout the duration of mechanical ventilation.
How long does it take to setup and deploy the Beacon Vent Multiplexor?
Setup and deployment takes only minutes for each patient. To use the Beacon Vent Multiplexor, the clinician need only insert the provided gas analyzing tubing in between the endotracheal tube and the ventilator tubing. With the connection of a peripheral oxygen saturation probe as well, the setup is complete. The Beacon Vent Multiplexor is a touchscreen tablet which is intuitive to set up and intuitive to use.
Does the Beacon Vent Multiplexor require split ventilation?
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor does not require the use of split ventilation at any time. The inclusion of the Vent Multiplexor kit ensures that in the event of an emergency ventilator shortage, all patients who need mechanical ventilation will be able to receive it while contingency plans are being made. Given concerns about the quality of pandemic ventilators and the challenges in obtaining sufficient ventilators, the Vent Multiplexor kit provides hospitals an affordable emergency ventilation option that is FDA Emergency Use Authorized and clinically tested.
How much ICU coverage does the Beacon Vent Multiplexor provide?
The Beacon Vent Multiplexor is optimally used in a 1:10 ratio of one system for every 10 ICU beds to ensure adequate coverage. The system can be transported on its rolling cart and deployed wherever needed in the ICU for advanced monitoring of the most critically ill patients. In certain pandemic circumstances, additional units may be required, and in these cases, the Beacon Vent Multiplexor’s monitoring capabilities can allow less costly, limited capability ventilators to be deployed, while retaining the monitoring capabilities of the most advanced critical care ventilators available.
Please be advised, the Vent Multiplexor kit is not an FDA approved device, and its authorization will only last for the duration of the FDA’s declaration that circumstances exist to justify the granting of the emergency use authorization.