Local San Marcos-based medical and contract manufacturer, ACI Medical, is pivoting operations quickly to help combat the shortage of portable ventilators. ACI Medical primarily focuses on building proprietary medical products focused on vascular diseases. When a unique contract opportunity presents itself, they are readily equipped to manufacture contracted jobs that require consultation, design, software changes, as well as molding plastic parts, assembly, and FDA testing requirements.
CEO, Biomedical Engineer and inventor, Ed Arkans, is a creative problem solver. While discussing the ventilator-shortage crisis and the COVID pandemic in the breakroom, Lennie Arkans, their Vascular Specialist, looked at him and said, “fix this shortage of ventilators!” He accepted the challenge and went straight to work. Within a day, he came up with a design and prototype for a portable ventilator.
At time of this publication, ACI Medical submitted the certification forms through the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration. They are waiting for certification before mass production and distribution.
These units are portable and have the luxury to help the situation in mobile capacity. ACI Medical hopes these ventilators are used in emergency medical vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks, and wherever mobile ventilation is needed.
