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PedsVent — Weight-Based Pediatric Ventilator Start Calculator

A calculator that gives safe ventilator settings based on a child's age and weight.

A calculator that turns a child's age and weight into safe starting ventilator settings, so general emergency teams and transport crews never apply adult numbers to a child.

MedicineRespiratory Support and Mechanisms
Dental Radiography and ImagingPediatric emergency medicine & retrieval transport — initial ventilation of children in general hospitals

Concept

A single-screen calculator for starting mechanical ventilation in a child. The user enters age and weight (or an age-based estimate) plus the clinical scenario — status asthmaticus, bronchiolitis, DKA, trauma, or a post-operative handover. The app returns weight-based initial settings (mode, tidal volume, rate, PEEP, FiO2) with age-appropriate capnography targets and a "reassess at 10 minutes" prompt. The output is also shown in a shareable form so the referring ED and the retrieval team hand off identical settings instead of re-deriving them at each transfer. It is a calculator, not a pediatric critical care platform: initial settings only.

Why now

  • The new paper [0] confirms the 7th edition of Oh's Intensive Care Manual carries a dedicated Pediatric Critical Care stream alongside its adult ventilation chapters — the weight-based practice knowledge exists, but it is locked inside a comprehensive print manual that a general ED physician cannot search mid-resuscitation.
  • Pediatric ventilation is a low-frequency, high-consequence event in general hospitals, and the characteristic failure mode is applying adult formulas to a child. A standalone calculator with no integration requirement has clearly identified first users — pediatric retrieval services and community EDs — directly answering the "no clear first user" flag on earlier ideas in this space.

Written by GLM · 11 Oct 2026

AI assessment

Backed by 1 paper85

A highly focused, high-utility clinical tool that digitizes established pediatric ventilation guidelines to prevent critical errors in low-frequency, high-stakes emergency scenarios.

Evidence strength
5/5
The idea relies on established, published medical standards (Oh's Intensive Care Manual) rather than speculative research, making the underlying logic highly reliable.
Market pull
4/5
There is a clear, urgent need in community EDs and transport teams where pediatric expertise is scarce and the cost of error is extreme.
Novelty & moat
2/5
While clinically valuable, it is a direct variant of 'FirstHour Vent' applied to a specific demographic (pediatrics) using the same mechanism of a settings calculator.
Feasibility
5/5
The product is a deterministic calculator based on existing formulas, requiring minimal development time and no complex integrations to reach MVP.
Wedge clarity
5/5
The wedge is exceptionally sharp: a single-screen calculator for initial settings during the high-stress window of pediatric intubation/transfer.
Simplicity / focus
5/5
The idea strictly avoids 'platform creep,' focusing solely on a calculator rather than attempting to build a full critical care management system.

Scored by Gemma 4 · 11 Oct 2026. Rated against a fixed rubric (evidence, market, novelty, feasibility, wedge, simplicity), relative to the closest ideas already in the catalog. A prior estimate to compare ideas before real-world signal arrives.

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Who benefits

  • NETS (Newborn & Paediatric Emergency Transport Service, NSW)organization

    Its retrieval teams ventilate children of every size across referring hospitals; a shared weight-based calculator means referring staff and the retrieval team start from identical settings, reducing handoff drift.

  • Air Methodscompany

    Its crews ventilate adults far more often than children; weight-based pediatric start settings address their lowest-frequency, highest-risk ventilation scenario during transport.

  • Kaiser Permanentecompany

    Its community EDs occasionally intubate children before transfer to a PICU; a calculator prevents adult-formula errors during the window before pediatric expertise arrives.

  • American Academy of Pediatricsorganization

    Publishes pediatric resuscitation and transport education such as PALS; a validated weight-based ventilation calculator is a natural companion to its life-support training materials.

Research it builds on

  1. OH’S INTENSIVE CARE MANUAL
    Andrew D. Bersten, Neil Soni, T. E. Oh · 2025 · 134 citations
    All ideas from this paper →
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