Shawdesh Desk:

NASA and Fitbit received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday for their ventilators designed to help Covid-19 patients.

NASA’s design, dubbed the VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), is a temporary piece of equipment that uses an internal compressor and is meant to last three to four months.

Because the VITAL runs on parts that are not typically in the medical device supply chain it shouldn’t have any impact on need for supplies for current ventilators.

The FDA also added the Fitbit Flow to its list of authorized ventilators. The device, which has quietly been in the works for some time, is a continuous respiratory support system that also includes an FDA-approved manual resuscitator as part of the machine.

The company calls it a “a high-quality, easy-to-use, and low-cost automatic resuscitator that is designed for emergency ventilation.”

“COVID-19 has challenged all of us to push the boundaries of innovation and creativity, and use everything at our disposal to more rapidly develop products that support patients and the healthcare systems caring for them,” said Fitbit CEO James Park.

“We saw an opportunity to rally our expertise in advanced sensor development, manufacturing, and our global supply chain to address the critical and ongoing need for emergency ventilators and help make a difference in the fight against this global virus.”