HP Innovation Journal Issue 15: Summer 2020 | Page 36
Acceleration of Change
Manufacturing
In 48 hours HP
designed, printed,
and shipped this
nylon-based nasal
swab prototype
for testing.
Localized manufacturing
where help is needed most
When the COVID-19 crisis hit Barcelona, Spain, hospitals
were filled with patients with severe respiratory
issues who needed breathing assistance, and healthcare
workers on the front lines contracted the virus because
they lacked adequate personal protective equipment.
To help address the urgent need, Clara Remacha
Corbalán, HP’s 3D Printing COVID-19 Applications
Lead, and her team worked with the local community
to create a website where medical clinics could order
emergency PPE and ventilation components through
HP’s partner network.
For certain in-demand applications, the team
published design files so that those with appropriate
3D-printing capabilities could produce them.
Almost immediately, requests poured in for face
masks, face shields, door openers, nasopharyngeal
swabs, and respirator components. Two days after getting
a request for face shields from the nearby Hospital
Sant Pau, her team had designed, printed, and delivered
a prototype. In just five days, they started shipping a
finished product in big volumes.
Combined with other HP experts, their partners
around the world, and the broader 3D-printing community,
Remacha and more than 900 HP volunteers have
collectively produced around 2.3 million 3D-printed
PPE and medical device parts.
Remacha’s team is working daily around the clock
and through weekends to meet the demand.
“When we receive an email or a call from a hospital
just to say, ‘Thank you,’ those are the things that make
us work harder,” she says.
This article originally appeared on Bloomberg Green as part
of a Bloomberg Green + HP partnership.
How 3D printing answered the call
for more nasopharyngeal swabs
While 3D-printed solutions can fill the supply chain
gaps in getting PPE supplies to medical workers, they
also provide support to another critical area in battling
the spread of COVID-19 testing.
When Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Ramy Arnaout
issued a call for more swabs to improve and increase
COVID-19 testing, a cross-sector team answered him.
HP collaborated with researchers at Harvard University
and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to iterate
and optimize a design for a 3D-printed nasopharyngeal
swab solution.
The six-inch, nylon-based prototype was produced
on an HP Multi Jet Fusion printer with a flexible neck
and highly designed head to maximize sample collection
and patient comfort.
The swab was recently validated in an institutional
review board–approved clinical trial and is now being
manufactured by HP partners and used in healthcare
settings and testing centers.
Reinventing relationships
to create new solutions
Shortly after the novel coronavirus first appeared in the
United States, Dr. Ryan Heyborne, chief medical officer
of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise,
Idaho, and his staff turned sections of the emergency
department and intensive care unit into COVID-19
wards, and deployed testing and assessment services
outside the hospital.
Despite these efforts, when the COVID-19 pandemic
hit the Boise community, Dr. Heyborne and his team
quickly felt a strain on their PPE supply, one that
would become more critical as the number of patients
increased. So when HP reached out with a possible
way to get Heyborne’s team the supplies he needed,
he was all ears.
In early March, an unexpected effort to support
the battle against COVID-19 took shape. Telehealth
pioneer and HP partner SmileDirectClub, which runs
one of the largest 3D-printing facilities in the United
States, producing millions of customized clear aligners,
switched production gears. The 60 HP commercial
3D printers the company uses to make aligners for their
customers’ doctor-prescribed treatment plans began
creating 3D-printed PPE parts to supply medical workers
fighting COVID-19.
To date, SmileDirectClub has shipped 66,000
face shields to customers including Saint Alphonsus,
the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, and
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