Thomas Greany, DDS, and William Whetstone, MD, with their prototype.

April 23, 2020 — The latest issue of the CU Anshcutz Today newsletter featured a story, Why Build One Ventilator When You Can Build 12? Dental School Faculty Member Applies Ingenuity to the Task, which explains how CU Professor, Thomas Greany, DDS, was approached by his former college roommate, William Whetstone, MD, about whether he could build a field ventilator that would provide essential respiratory support for multiple patients simultaneously. Greany successfully designed one that can support 12 patients at a time with different inhale-exhale rhythms, which he dubbed, “Mother Mary, the Mother of All RespiratorY devices.”

Then, Greany and a group of his colleagues reached out to RK Mission Critical to build six of these emergency backup ventilators for trials. You can watch a video of the teams discussing the project in our facility here.

UC Health and CU Medicine each will receive a ventilator to test and deploy in emergencies. The FDA recently issued guidelines to allow for such backup devices to meet the ventilator shortage in the U.S.

“My ER physician colleagues have indicated that this device could have a significant impact globally, especially in developing countries that don’t have ventilators,” Greany says. “If nothing else, this pandemic has exposed a critical strategic shortfall in personal protective equipment and invasive ventilators worldwide.” He also expressed tremendous gratitude for those who contributed to the project and especially those who bravely battle the pandemic on the front lines.

RK Mission Critical is extremely proud to be a part of this project. Read the full story here.