A new negative pressure ventilator which could provide additional treatment options for patients with respiratory failure, including those with COVID-19—and whose design can be easily adapted to developing countries—has been created by a team that includes anaesthetists, nurses and engineers. Details on the new exovent system—which is similar in design but much smaller in scale and easier to use than the devices used to help treat polio patients during the 1950s—are published in Anaesthesia.