05: Addressing the state’s critical PPE shortage

As if facing a pandemic wasn’t bad enough, a shortage of personal protective equipment threatened health care providers working hard to save lives — a call to action for ASU researchers. The university created an online network that enlists community members with access to resources such as 3D printers and sewing machines to rapidly produce personal protective equipment. Months into the COVID-19 crisis, the ongoing shortage of PPE forced hospitals to rely on sterilizing and reusing equipment to shore up supplies. Researchers have developed a variety of options to make sterilization fast, effective and affordable.

Protecting the protectors

Students in ASU’s Luminosity Lab devised a brilliant solution to address the state’s PPE shortage: enlisting community members with access to resources such as 3D printers and sewing equipment to mass produce face shields, medical gowns and nasal swabs for health care providers through the PPE Response Network. The network quickly partnered with a number of organizations — Banner Health, Equality Health, Dignity Health, HonorHealth and Arizona Academy of Family Physicians, among others — to get their equipment needs registered and underway. Over the year, more than 15,500 pieces of equipment were delivered to hospitals, clinics and other health care providers in need.

Over one year, the PPE Response Network delivered more than 15,500 pieces of equipment to hospitals, clinics and other health care providers in need.

Harnessing UVC light to sanitize PPE

N95 masks — critical protective gear for health care providers — are designed for single use. But with Arizona hospitals going through 5,000 to 6,000 N95 masks per week, this essential PPE became a scarce resource. A research team in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment created a device that delivers the perfect dosage of UVC light to PPE to kill the coronavirus in 5 to 10 minutes. Until the pandemic hit, the research team was focused on new ways to disinfect water, but quickly pivoted to answer the nation’s urgent call to develop new technology that can help sanitize medical equipment for reuse.

Making PPE safer and reusable

A professor in the School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering tapped into decades of experience in microcontamination management. He built a lab in his own home to create systems for ozone reconditioning of N95 masks and other surgical gear, allowing health care workers to make their surgical and personal clothing safe and reuse hard-to-find items. As part of an ASU working group collaborating with Banner Health’s innovation team, he is also examining the materials of general use masks to ensure they filter airborne particles as well as surgical masks that are in short supply. The results of his study will influence which materials will be recommended for use in masks made for hospital staff and visitors.

Students in the ASU Luminosity Lab also mobilized to address the personal protective equipment shortage by creating two low-cost, small scale sterilization systems. The first uses vaporized hydrogen peroxide and is intended to combat the N95 mask shortage. The second relies on ozone, and was designed to provide small businesses with a way to sterilize a variety of items, including clothing and reusable face masks.