Aspects of the subject technology relate to a control device for a medical ventilator. The control device has a user definable medical ventilator protocol and is configured to select a plurality of objects from a group of objects, wherein each of the objects are segments of the ventilator protocol, and each of the objects has at least one attribute. Further, the control device is configured to arrange the plurality of objects in a sequence, initiate the at least one attribute to define a property for each object in the plurality of objects, and execute the sequence. The medical control device gives the user flexibility to define and implement a medical ventilator protocol in a faster way than possible today and for different patients and/or ventilator situations.