News in the world of medical Physics

     In the time of COVID-19,  we have learned a lot about ventilators and their purpose in treating critically ill patients.  As an EMT, medical physics was a topic of interest for me. Many of the most seriously ill patients infected with COVID-19 develop pneumonia and need assistance-breathing. This is done using mechanical ventilators, which pump oxygen into the lungs and then remove the carbon dioxide that they breathe out. 

    Physicists of the DarkSide experiment team at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy have designed a new, stripped-down mechanical ventilator. Heading the project are two men named Art McDonald and Cristiano Galbiati.  Galbiati is a particle physicist at Princeton University currently working at the Gran Sasso national lab, which is run by Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN).  Working with a team of more than 200 experts, including doctors, engineers and fellow physicists, the new ventilator went from just an idea to FDA approved in just 42 days.  The ventilator is now in full production. These ventilators are designed specifically for COVID-19 patients. The design is simple, cheap, compact and requires only compressed oxygen and a source of electrical power to run.  Galbiati has used his expert research in constructing sensitive instruments for compressed argon and applied it compressed oxygen and nitrogen in a medical instrument.

    Galbiati studied at an Italian university and majored in electronic engineering.  Galbiatis' main research focus is particle physics, specifically dark matter.  Recent observations from his lab have demonstrated that a large fraction of the energy in the universe (25%) is in the form of cold matter that does not clump and does not shine light.  This is called dark matter. Dark matter is one of the fundamental constituents of the universe and has never been directly observed.  He is currently exploring new ideas on direct dark Matter detection using argon and xenon as targets.

Sources:

1) Biron, Lauren. “FDA Approves Ventilator Designed by Particle Physics Community.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, 2020, www.princeton.edu/news/2020/05/05/fda-approves-ventilator-designed-particle-physics-community.

2)Fuller-Wright, Liz. “Particle Physicists Design Simplified Ventilator for COVID-19 Patients.” Princeton University, The Trustees of Princeton University, 2020, www.princeton.edu/news/2020/04/09/particle-physicists-design-simplified-ventilator-covid-19-patients.