Sunday, January 20, 2013

Dumbing Down Ventilator Taxonomy



In a recent letter to the editor “Ventilatory modes. What’s in a name?”[1] Authors provide a strong argument for the need to standardize terminology in regards to mechanical ventilation and propose an oversimplified classification system specifically for non-invasive ventilatory devices. I applaud the authors for their call to action; conversely their viewpoint is neither novel nor applicable to ventilator taxonomy.

Thursday, January 17, 2013

FiO2 Titration Augmented by Artificial Intelligence




I have been a Registered Respiratory Therapist for greater than twelve years and have never considered the titration of oxygen a big deal. Furthermore, practicing at > 10 different facilities in eight different States I have never needed to be prompted by a physician or surveillance system to titrate the FiO2 during mechanical. Fortunately, I have only worked at facilities with respiratory care practitioner driven protocols. So when two recent articles were published on the subject within the last month I took notice [1, 2].

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Simplifying Mechanical Ventilation


From Global Nerdy @ www.globalnerdy.com

In a recent letter to the editor “Ventilatory modes. What’s in a name?”[1] Authors provide a strong argument for the need to standardize terminology in regards to mechanical ventilation and propose an oversimplified classification system specifically for non-invasive ventilatory devices. I applaud the authors for their call to action; conversely their viewpoint is neither novel nor applicable to ventilator taxonomy.