Patient emulator: A tool for testing mechanical ventilation therapies

Several modes of mechanical ventilation are clinically available. The differences among them in terms of efficacy and patient outcomes are not clear yet. Testing and comparison of mechanical ventilation modes via human or animal trials is a very challenging and costly process. In this paper, we present the patient emulator (PE), a novel system that can be used as a platform for in-silico testing of mechanical ventilation therapies. The system is based on a large-scale integrated mathematical model of the human cardiopulmonary system interfaced with a physical ventilator via a controlled piston-cylinder actuator. The performance of the proposed PE is demonstrated by simulating a realistic pressure support ventilation step protocol. The PE-simulated patient's response is then compared against averaged data from 33 human subjects. The agreement between the simulated data and their experimental counterparts shows the potential of the proposed PE to be used as a substitute for or in addition to conventional animal and human trials.