Helping Supply Medical Professionals in the Fight Against COVID-19

We’ve all seen the news about shortages of PPE for medical professionals across the country. Our immediate reaction was to find a way to give back to our community. Last week we found ourselves becoming a primary supplier of face shields for the UCLA Health hospital system. So far, we have donated almost 6,000 face shields to their medical team and we are not stopping there.

To share our progression of concept to completion. Here is how our designs evolved:

We are so proud to be part of this design community and we know that together we can all help develop innovative solutions during these challenging times. We know some of you might have a 3D printer or laser cutter, and we wanted to share these resources in case you have the ability to assist. All of our efforts, big or small, can help keep friends and family safe. Below are some links we found useful in developing innovative ways to help the medical community in this time of need.

• Open Source Medical Supplies Public Facebook Group – This community is a place to share promising open-source designs for key supplies and ideas for how to work together, and to find collaborators, and share inspiring stories about response efforts to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
• Enable HP COVID-19 3D Printing Library – This library, run by Hewlett-Packard, offers diverse cost effective 3D printable solutions for assisting medical professionals in combating COVID-19.
• Prusa Research 3D Open Source Face Shields Library – A library of operated by European 3D printing supply and services provider Prusa Research, who has already donated over 35,000 face shields.
• Focus Taiwan Aerosol Box Feature – This feature story by the English language Taiwanese publication Focus Taiwan spotlights an innovative, affordable device developed by Lai Hsien-yungon, anesthesiologist with Mennonite Christian Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan, to make intubation far safer for doctors.

Here are some links to find needs in your community:

• GetUsPPE.org – Give to the Healthcare community. GetUsPPE was founded by a team of physicians from across the nation who saw first-hand the need for Personal Protective Equipment. Find your nearest PPE donation site or make a financial contribution online.
• DonatePPE.org – DonatePPE.org represents a partnership between doctors, engineers, and medical students across the country. Their mission is to ensure that healthcare professionals in the United States have access to the adequate protection they need to fight against COVID19.

If you have a 3D printer, we believe these folks are still accepting prints to combine into full shields:

• Operation Shields UP – Operation Shields Up’s mission is to ensure that first responders and all of those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic have the protection they need by crowd-sourced manufacturing using 3D printing.

We hope these links will help fuel possibilities for all to further assist the medical community, inspiring new ways to overcome the challenge of COVID-19 and save lives.

Read an Official Message on Arktura’s COVID-19 Response from Founding Partner Rob Kilian