Since the emergence of the dangerous contagion SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the COVID-19 disease, the U.S. healthcare system has faced innumerable new challenges, including oversaturated hospitals, limited numbers of physicians and other healthcare workers, and dwindling supplies of essential healthcare equipment.
Although all of these problems are becoming increasingly more severe, the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as adequate masks, goggles, and gowns is one of the most important issues for healthcare workers, who continue to face the largest burden of risk related to the coronavirus.
To address this vital problem, researchers assembled a multidisciplinary team at Boston Children’s Hospital, which included members from the Surgical Innovation Fellowship, Department of Surgery, a Respiratory Care/ECMO team, and an Environmental Health and Safety team. The research group, which is led by fellowship co-directors Dr. Farokh Demehri and Dr. Heung Bae Kim, has worked tirelessly over the past week to engineer a cheap and simple solution to help alleviate one of most prevalent PPE problems: the lack of masks available to protect healthcare professionals treating coronavirus, which can be transmitted through the air.
Read more: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelyncorley/2020/03/23/researchers-devise-new-breakthrough-to-protect-healthcare-workers-from-coronavirus/
