The AC was broken this week at the TVP office.
It’s always interesting to see how different people will react to the heat. Some aren’t affected at all, while others get loopy, or distracted, or so drowsy they can’t go five minutes without lying their heads on their desks—in any case, the number of people working remotely this week rose sharply as volunteers retreated to their air conditioned homes. We’re fortunate to have the infrastructure to stay efficient with so many people working remotely! Hopefully we’ll have AC again next week.
An interesting study has come out of King’s College London. Using data from around 1,600 U.K. and U.S. COVID-19 patients who logged their symptoms in March and April, researchers think that there are six different types of COVID-19 with varying clusters of symptoms and severity levels. This discovery might “open new possibilities for how doctors can better treat individual patients and predict what level of hospital care they would need,” which includes predicting the percentage of patients who will need ventilators (CBS News). The study discussed in the article has not yet been peer-reviewed, but it’s exciting to read about.
In more saddening news, the US officially has the most fatalities of any country in the world with over 150,000 deaths (Wall Street Journal). The pandemic has certainly taken a toll and lasted longer than anyone would have expected in March. As the last month of summer approaches, it’s important to acknowledge this loss of life, reminding ourselves of why we must continue to make decisions that will stop the spread of the virus.
PRODUCT UPDATES
Our EUA Submission is just about to be sent to the FDA! It’s been a long, eventful journey to get here, and this is a monumental milestone!
The FDA’s review of AIRA might take several weeks. That’s fine—authorization is a back and forth process, and there’s plenty we need to do to move forward as an organization in the meantime.
Product management will soon have more findings from interviews that are being conducted with respiratory therapists. The newly hired Project Managers are helping out with the research, and feedback from these interviews as well as external testing has resulted in updates to the user manual. 
Our first functional human testing was conducted on Wednesday! This allowed us to test our ventilator in a practical setting just one step away from a busy hospital ICU with real patients in need of help. It’s a big deal to have our device tested by a doctor.
On the manufacturing side, the focus is on the supply chain, and the team is working to speed up the assembly process for AIRA by finding alternatives for certain components.
Company Flash Updates!
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We’re putting together a nine episode docu-series that tells the story of TVP from its initial conception up until the present. The marketing department is calling on all TVP members, whether they’ve just joined or have been here from the start, to send in any photos and videos they might have that could help us tell our story! Volunteers, please email media@52.5.97.206 with your TVP-related media. We’re also continuing to film interviews to record the stories of team members.
HR is thinking long term as new volunteers are brought on, streamlining the onboarding process and planning for a fall internship program.
Meanwhile, fundraising has been doing a lot of prep work for the company’s next phase and milestones. Our ambassadors are wrapping up their last 2 weeks in the program with a final project: some are planning a running event while others will be making tie dye masks!
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be entering uncharted territory
Once we’ve handed over our EUA application to the FDA, the review process will be out of our hands, yet we will continue to work proactively to optimize manufacturing methods and generate sales leads. We’re staying focused on what we can control. We’ve celebrated some big wins lately, and those successes provide excellent motivation to stay driven as we continue our preparations for manufacturing and distribution over the next few weeks.
If you’re living around Boston, it looks like the weekend will bring more of the same heat we’ve experienced throughout the week. Enjoy the sun, and don’t forget to hydrate!
Thank you for your continued support. We’ll see you again in August.
Best Wishes,
The Ventilator Project