The Health Sciences and Human Services Library has been contributing 3D-printed parts for various local personal protective equipment needs.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) includes items such as isolation gowns, eye protection, face masks, N95 respirators, ventilators, and more. In response to the global supply crisis, agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration are recommending the use of improvised PPE to fill the gap until official supplies are more readily available.
People all around the world are leveraging a wide range of tools and materials to make improvised PPE. Academic health sciences libraries with makerspaces are particularly suited to contribute to this effort. Not only are such libraries likely to have 3D printers and other fabrication tools, but they also are likely to have a connection to the front lines of local responses to public health crises.
The University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HS/HSL) has been contributing 3D-printed parts for various local PPE needs.
- A Baltimore-wide effort to make durable improvised PPE available to health care providers by the case at a minimal cost: The organizers solicit people with 3D printers and sewing machines to print face shield parts and sew face masks. Organizers then sanitize, assemble, and package them for distribution.
- The Infectious Disease Department at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC): Multiple PPE designs have been prototyped and reviewed for usage.
- All 10,000-plus personnel at UMMC: All hospital staff wear face masks for extended periods of time. It is causing broken skin and irritation behind their ears. 3D-printed surgical mask tension release bands (“ear savers”) can alleviate this issue. See the “S” design and the various head size design.
The HS/HSL is not alone in this effort. Other academic health sciences libraries are involved in similar work, including but not limited to: