To produce lifesaving devices in the fight against COVID-19, Forrest General Hospital, Hattiesburg Clinic, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Howard Industries demonstrated Thursday how they had turned innovation into medical equipment that can be used worldwide.
Dr. Joe Campbell, the chief anesthesiologist at Forrest General, outlined the three unique devices during a livestream news conference at the hospital. Then he introduced medical, university, and business people who demonstrated the equipment.
“This teamwork I think sets our community apart from any community in the country,” he said. “The first thing: To protect our healthcare workers at Forrest General, Southern Miss has produced a 3-D printed molded Hub Mask.”
Dr. Anna Wan, director of USM’s 3-D printing lab, demonstrated the mask along with FGH Respiratory Therapy Director Dr. Brittany Coberly.
“We know that 3-D printing takes a long time,” Wan said. “We printed the Hub Mask in five hours, which is great. However, we wanted to improve on that still. In order to speed up production of multiple masks, we molded a solid piece of plastic over the 3-D printed plaster or silicone molds and attached a ready-made hospital-available filter.”
Coberly said Wan approached her about helping the medical personnel.
“When she came to me, I showed her our bacterial viral filters as well as our HEPA filters,” Coberly said. “We were able to come up with this idea that is very lightweight, washable, and very comfortable; that's one thing that all of our staff has tested so far has said.”
Coberly said she used the Hub Mask during a workday after having trouble breathing on the current masks. The Hub Mask has a life expectancy of 30 days.
“It is not approved by the FDA at this point in time,” Coberly said. “But, we did test it with this sugar substance. What we thought was ‘Did the person wearing a mask taste it?’ We did it with different prototypes, and we have been very successful in this.”
Wan said she delivered the last of the 1,600 masks Thursday morning from USM. The masks are listed on eaglemakerhub.com.
Wan and Coberly also developed an outlet to the mask to allow filtered air to leave the mask and allow medical workers to breathe and see without any problems.
For the third piece of equipment, Campbell asked the USM Robotics Team to look into developing a simple air bag-based device to eliminate the continuing shortage of ventilators to treat patients. “They produced a prototype in a matter of days,” he said.
Campbell then turned to Mark Dyess of Howard Industries to see if the device could be produced simply and inexpensively on the industrial side.
“We were able to improve upon it, add some different mechanics to it with the same basic functionality, and break it down a little more so it would be more compact and with a little bit more control,” Dyess explained. “With this particular model the parts are readily available and can be mass produced very easily, and it does provide a backup in case there is an electrical shortage.”