My fridge is full, yet I’m still overwhelmed. I’m overwhelmed because it isn’t filled with what my family typically buys. I’m overwhelmed because there are things that we have to conserve which we wouldn’t have been careful about before. Amidst the global pandemic, we are forced to change our ways of living, because we don’t have access to all of the resources we used to rely on. But, we are fine. We are able to re-purpose what we do have access to and use it efficiently. However, there are doctors that do not have access to the medical tools that are necessary to keep themselves safe from their infected patients. They are constantly exposed to the virus and need more than cloth masks to protect themselves. The problem is that there is a lack of medical equipment made specifically for a global pandemic, like COVID-19. As the disease becomes more widespread, fewer doctors have access to helmets and masks to protect themselves and to contain the disease. I think that it is interesting that colleges and universities possess a tremendous amount of technology and have access to materials that could benefit healthcare workers. Instead of starting from scratch, they are able to repurpose the technology they already have to develop helpful innovations. For example, Duke University turned a surgical helmet into a powered air purifying respirator, which is essentially an air filtering mask. The Duke engineers who contributed to the project had a goal of combatting the lack of medical equipment. Surgical N95 respirator face masks are personal protective equipment (PPE) usually used by healthcare workers to protect themselves, but many hospitals are experiencing shortages of this item. Orthopedic spine surgeon, Melissa Erickson, one of the project contributors, decided that if there were national shortages on PPE, it would make sense to make modifications to equipment that is already used in the hospital. Attaching a filter to a helmet usually worn during arthroplasty surgery integrated technology that was already available and new components made of accessible materials. Their PAPR (filtered personal protective equipment) was an alternative to PPEs that provided equivalent or greater protection to health care workers. The filter that is added to the surgical helmet is 3D printed using Duke Innovation Co-Lab’s Formlabs printers. It was remodeled and tested four to five times before being completed. After it was finished, it was tested by the HEPA certification company, Precision Air Technology, before care providers began using it. I reached out to Professor Ken Gall for further inquiry about the engineers’ future plans for the newly developed technology. After asking if the masks are being delivered to hospitals outside of Duke, he responded: “Right now they are being delivered only to Duke, but we are sharing designs with other hospitals so they may possibly make some for their own facility.” He also gave insight into how the PAPR compares to the N95 mask commonly used. “The filters are similar to what is used on N95, but not exactly the same configurations. The PAPR suit hack (the design transforms a Arthroplasty suit to a PAPR) covers much more of the health care worker than a N95 mask. PAPR suits, both the original ones and our transformed Arthroplasty suit, offer much more protection than an N95 for riskier procedures like intubations. But there are not enough of them to replace N95 masks.” In addition to Duke, the University of Michigan created a repurposed industrial respirator to help in the hospital when testing and treating Coronavirus patients. While Duke’s masks are made for workers, UMich’s masks are intended for patients to use. The helmets serve the purpose of protecting healthcare workers and safeguarding the hospital systems, allowing therapies to be delivered outside negative pressure rooms. Negative pressure rooms are important because they allow outside air to enter from a segregated environment. However, limited access to negative pressure rooms called for technological changes to be made. Inspired by an astronaut helmet connected to a hose, the UMich researchers developed a new, portable, mass producible helmet system that creates negative pressure inside of it, which protects caregivers and saves ventilators for critical cases. The helmets allow treatments to be delivered outside negative pressure rooms and still isolate patients from healthcare workers, in order to prevent the spread of the virus. The helmet was built mostly from commercially available parts and was tested by clinicians on the ability to speak with it on and functionality of it. The UMich researchers were able to receive feedback from the clinicians, before testing them with patients under supervised protocol. Now, they have developed successful helmets and their goal is to spread them among healthcare workers as fast as possible. They are working with industry partners to increase production and reach their goals during the pandemic. Learning about all of this makes me think about how I could be helping during the pandemic. Universities have access to so much more technology and advanced resources than we do in our households, but it doesn’t degrade from the fact that we can at least appreciate what we do have. The idea of repurposing is something we can consider during a time where we can’t leave our house and stop at the store casually. Most importantly, we can appreciate the help and the sacrifices Universities, companies, and individual people are making to bring the world back to normal.
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AuthorKatie Zelvin Archives
September 2020
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