The University of Oxford and King’s College London have teamed up to develop and are now testing a new emergency ventilator that consists of devices that commonly exist in clinical spaces and scientific laboratories, and a few simple parts that can be created through 3D printing. Bringing together these devices allows the team to create [&hel (Read more...)
Tag: Public Health
Clear Face Masks for The Deaf and Hard of Hearing
There are hundreds of groups around the world making face masks as fast as they can to help slow the spread of COVID-19. While face masks can help to block particulates from entering the nose and mouth, they also make it impossible to see the mouth moving when the wearer is talking. This is actually […]
AnapnoGuard Helps Prevent Ventilator Complications
Ventilators are important to maintain patients with severe respiratory distress due to COVID-19, but the machines carry their own risks. An over-inflated endotracheal tube cuff could damage the trachea, while an under-inflated cuff could result in aspiration and pneumonia. AnapnoGuard, developed by Hospitech Respiration, an Israeli firm, is an endo (Read more...)
Robotic COVID-19 Testing Lab Can Process 1000 Patient Samples Daily
Researchers at UC Berkeley have set up a “pop-up” robotic COVID-19 testing lab that can process up to 1000 patient samples a day, and it could ramp up to as many as 3000 a day, if required. The initiative received donations of high-throughput robotic PCR systems from campus research labs within Berkeley, and the new […]
STERRAD Sterilizers Triple Lifetime of N95 Masks
STERRAD sterilizers, made by Advanced Sterilization Products (ASP), an Irvine, California firm, are a common sight in hospitals around the world. They’re used to reprocess surgical tools and other equipment, but now the same devices can be immediately utilized to turn single-use N95 masks into reusable devices. ASP has just qualified a new re (Read more...)
Smart Manufacturing for COVID-19 Response: Interview with Amar Hanspal, Bright Machines CEO
Bright Machines, a smart manufacturing company based in San Francisco, offers automation solutions for assembly and inspection of dozens of products, including for the medical device industry. Medgadget recently featured an interview with Jesse Lehga of Diagnostics for the Real World, who have partnered with Bright Machines to produce point-of-care (Read more...)
New Device to Disinfect 500 N95 Masks Per Hour
Prescientx, an Ontario, Canada firm, has just started taking orders for a device that can rapidly disinfect N95 masks using ultraviolet (UV) light. By bathing the masks with light in the UV-C range, the Terminator CoV device can process up to 500 masks per hour. This is quite spectacular, given the current shortage of masks, […]
ProtectivAir Sterilizes Inhaled Air Using UV Light
Medi-Immune, a UK firm, recently revealed ProtectivAir, a breathing device that uses UVc light to sterilize inhaled air and protect wearers against airborne pathogens, potentially including SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). The device is meant to be used by healthcare staff and others with occupational exposure to airborne pathogens. ProtectivAir consists of (Read more...)
COVID Med Supply Makes Donating Personal Protective Equipment Easy
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is already running short at hospitals around the world dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic. However, there are dispersed stocks of face masks, shields, gloves, and other equipment that painters, dentists, demolition crews, and others may have on hand but are not sure how and where to donate them. Dr. Derek O&rsquo (Read more...)
Georgia Tech Spearheads Distributed Protective Equipment Manufacturing Effort
Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is drawing on its access to engineers, scientists, and people in the manufacturing world, to quickly create and help mass produce a variety of personal protective equipment to fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They’re focusing their efforts on using materials that are not already in short supp (Read more...)
Pandemic Drone to Detect People with Respiratory Conditions
Researchers at the University of South Australia are working to develop a drone that can spot people with potential respiratory infections, remotely. A wall-mounted AI device that listens for coughing and sneezing to predict and monitor pandemics was recently reported in Medgadget, but this latest monitoring device is mobile. The developers say the (Read more...)
University of Minnesota Develops Simpler, Inexpensive Mechanical Ventilator
With the rise of COVID-19 cases throughout the United States, one of the biggest concerns is the potential shortage of ventilators for patients who have severe viral pneumonia. A team at the University of Minnesota has designed a mechanical ventilator that is inexpensive and made of easy to obtain materials. Unlike traditional ventilators, the Cove (Read more...)
MIT Emergency Ventilator Submitted for FDA Review
The ongoing COVID-19 emergency affecting nearly the entire globe is making medical ventilators into a hot commodity. During normal times, busy intensive care units can expect to use a dozen or so ventilators at the same time. As a respiratory virus, COVID-19 can make breathing on one’s own impossible, so ventilators are expected to be [&helli (Read more...)
Magnetic Beads Trap E. Coli from Body Fluid Samples
While current concern is all about the COVID-19 virus that originated in China and spread around the world, this pathogen will eventually disappear. Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria, though, is with us for the long run and it can cause just as much suffering as COVID-19. Researchers at Rutgers University have just reported in journal […]
Washable Face Masks Thanks to Electrospun Nanofibers
One big reason there’s a shortage of face masks that can block the spread of the COVID-19 virus is that they’re single-use devices. The exterior may be contaminated and there’s a good chance that keeping the mask and using it again could transmit the infection, particularly when masks are used around known COVID-19 patients. Becau (Read more...)
Open Source Face Shield to Help Block COVID-19
While face masks that block particles from coming into the lungs via the nose and mouth are important to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the eyes and the rest of the face can also be a pathway for the disease to find its way into the body. There are now a number of projects around […]
AI Device Listens for Coughs and Sneezes to Monitor and Forecast Pandemics
Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a portable AI device that can listen for coughs and sneezes and count the number of people present in public places to make predictions about levels of flu-like illnesses. The system, called “FluSense,” could be useful in the current COVID-19 pandemic in helping resea (Read more...)
Robots to Greet, Triage Incoming Coronavirus Patients
Because of the COVID 19 situation, clinical facilities are currently faced with the issue of trying to keep interactions between potential patients and staff at a minimum. Face masks and other precautions help, but modern technology is allowing some tasks to be completely performed without human staff. Wegree, a company based in Poland, makes human (Read more...)
Print Your Own Hands-Free Door Opener to Contain Spread of Coronavirus
As hospitals around the world are getting swamped with patients due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there are issues with having clinical facilities becoming easy havens for the disease to spread. Something that technicians with access to 3D printers can now quickly do is turn standard door handles into the kind that can be opened with […]
Intel’s Chip Learns to Sniff for Hazardous Chemicals
Researchers at Intel Labs and Cornell University have utilized an unusual “neuromorphic chip” to quickly learn the signature smell of ten different hazardous chemicals and spot their presence quicker than ever before. The Loihi chip, as it is called, mimics how our brains classify and identify unique smells that our noses detect, retain (Read more...)