COVID-PPE

Community engagement and impact

In March 2020, at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the UK’s supply chain for medical grade PPE collapsed under unprecedented demand and a workforce that could be sent into quarantine at a moment’s notice. As a result frontline clinical staff in some of the UK’s busiest hospitals were left to care for patients without adequate protective equipment. To respond to this, a coalition of experts in medicine and surgery, medical devices, product design and digital manufacturing was formed between Queen Mary University of London and the Royal London Dental Hospital to design safe, effective and reusable PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) that could be manufactured quickly to meet the urgent demands of London’s hospitals and medical and dental surgeries.

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Outcomes

This project resulted in the manufacture of over 3,000 3D printed face visors, and a further 20,000 injection moulded visors which were distributed to hospitals, schools and community medical practices within days of the nationwide PPE shortage. These were also the second 3D printed face visors to gain regulatory apporoval (CE mark) in the UK, and the first to be specifically designed for high-risk aerosol generating dental procedures. The accompanying paper, “Innovation in the time of SARS-CoV-2: A collaborative journey between NHS clinicians, engineers, academics and industry” was published in the Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and goes into more detail about the manufacturing and logistical steps required to design and distribute a product, from scratch, within a matter of days.

Collaborators

  • Professor Shakeel Shahdad, Royal London Hospital
  • Dr Ahmed Din, Royal London Hospital
  • Dr Sarah Waia, Royal London Hospital
  • Hristina Cvetanovska, Royal London Hospital
  • Professor Kaspar Althoefer, Queen Mary University of London
  • Dr Ildar Farkhatdinov, University of London
  • Dr Bukeikhan Omarali, Queen Mary University of London

Funding

  • Bart's Charity
  • Queen Mary University of London
  • Charitable donations from a Facebook fundraiser

References