Australian researchers have found a way to help two people breathe from one ventilator.

Hospitals across the globe are experiencing ventilator shortages amid COVID-19, with the US Food and Drug Administration recently passing emergency authorisation for the splitting ventilators.

And now Melbourne researchers have successfully tested ventilator splitting in a simulated setting, according to a study published in Anaesthesia.

The team from Monash University, the Alfred and the Royal Women’s Hospital said they did not condone ventilator splitting.