Spiritus Medical Inc
Delivering Cost-Effective Ventilators

The sudden outburst of COVID-19 in 2020 had shaken healthcare systems across the globe. Almost every country was struggling to bridge the gap between supply and demand of ventilators. That’s why NASA Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) engineers took an Apollo 13 type approach to design a ventilator with non-conventional parts and completed the project in less than 40 days. The Columbus-based medical technology startup, STARK Industries LLC, was one of only eight U.S. companies that was awarded the license to manufacture and distribute the NASA JPLdesigned ventilator. Since then, the company had spun-off Spiritus Medical Inc to handle the ventilator business and has been producing these ventilators with the help of its contract manufacturing partner, Laszeray Technology LLC, located in North Royalton, Ohio. Renamed the Spiritus Vitality ventilator, these life-saving devices are being marketed primarily to developing countries where there is a severe shortage of essential medical resources, including ventilators, largely due to high costs and a lack of access.

In addition to addressing the acute ventilator shortage caused by the pandemic, Spiritus Medical also envisions addressing long-term baseline shortages of ventilators in developing countries with its cost-effective designs. The NASA-designed ventilators do not use traditional ventilator components nor do they compete with the supply chain of existing ventilator manufacturers. Unlike typical ventilators used in intensive care units in the U.S. that range between $30,000 and $50,000 per unit, the Spiritus Vitality costs less than $10,000. In other words, governments across developing countries can purchase more than five of these cost-effective ventilators instead of buying just one high-end ventilator for the same amount of money.

These simplified ventilators can manage 80-90 percent of patients who need a ventilator.

Meaning, hospitals can wisely invest their money to purchase a mix of both high-end ventilators for critically ill patients and the Vitality for all their other patients. Further, its design is easily modifiable for the development of various applications in the future. “While continuing to promote this particular version of the ventilator, we also aim to pursue the next generation to further enhance its capabilities based on feedback and need.

However, our current objective is to keep it simple and inexpensive so that the majority of countries and hospitals in less affluent places can afford them,” says Peter H. U. Lee, CEO, Spiritus Medical.

To further power its initiative to deliver life-saving innovations, Spiritus Medical partnered with Breath of Life Africa (BoLA), a nonprofit organization, to donate ventilators to hospitals in Africa. The objective is to raise funds, purchase ventilators, and donate them to specific hospitals in eight different countries across Africa. “We are donating one ventilator for every 12 purchased ventilators, as a part of this charitable program,” adds Joe Swantack, the COO at Spiritus Medical. The company has also partnered with Bharat Forge Limited, an Indian company and an international NASA licensee. Spiritus Medical has provided them with not only the components they lacked but also US-made versions of the ventilator. The partnership enabled Spiritus Medical to reach the maximum number of clients in India and across the globe. In order to bring this ventilator technology to the Eastern hemisphere, the company had recently exhibited atone of the world’s largest healthcare expos, Arab Health 2022, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Spiritus Medical is continually looking forward to delivering these simple, effective, and affordable ventilators to save as many lives as possible across different corners of the globe. With an aim to establish a foundation to foster global health resilience, the company is driving its efforts to make ventilators available where they are required. “Our objective is to address the baseline shortages of ventilators by offering a simpler and more cost-effective alternative,” Lee concludes.