Fitbit to build ventilators for treating COVID-19 patients

Global wearable brand Fitbit has announced that it will be shifting supply chain resources to make emergency ventilators designed to treat coronavirus patients.

In a conversation with CNBC, James Park, CEO Fitbit, said that the ventilators will be used to help treat COVID-19 patients and help bolster the supply of medical devices.

Park said the company will be submitting its technology to the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) in the coming days.

According to him, a team has started working on the ventilators after consulting physicians from Massachusetts General Brigham and Oregon Health And Science University (OHSU), among other places.

"There was a lot of concern about the shortage of ventilators and we realized we had expertise already around the supply chain," Park said to CNBC.

Park aims for the ventilators to be the most advanced emergency user ventilator that's still available at a lower price point.

Presently, many organisations have contributed manufacturing resources to make ventilators like GM, Ford, Tesla and more.