IT Blog

As COVID-19 began to lay siege to New York City’s hospitals in March, a small but consequential debate broke out in American emergency rooms and intensive care units: Was it possible that ventilators, the much-politicized medical devices widely seen as a lifeline for severely ill COVID-19 patients, were being overused? With a pandemic poised to sweep through the U.S. and the horrific example of Italy still lingering, the dispute gained a particular urgency.

At the core of the debate was a four-letter acronym that most Americans had never heard of: ARDS, or acute respiratory distress syndrome, a harrowing lung condition that was listed on many COVID-19 death certificates. Since it was first identified half a century ago, ARDS has been mired in controversy—over how to define it, how to diagnose it, and whether it should be considered a true clinical condition at all. It is because of ARDS, a diagnosis that owes its very existence to a machine, that we went into the pandemic…