mHUB Personal Protective and Medical Equipment Innovation Teams
In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, mHUB’s community of makers and physical product entrepreneurs has turned their attention to developing solutions to increase the supply of vital personal protective and medical equipment to support the region’s healthcare system. Entrepreneurs are working tirelessly, and-in-hand with clinicians and manufacturers, to develop life-saving technology quickly. Projects include:
Ventilator Solutions: Two novel designs for a low-cost emergency ventilator designed specifically for local manufacturing communities to ramp up production quickly. The technology utilizes readily available, off-the-shelf components and allows for flexible hardware platforms to increase the rate at which units can be produced and distributed. Project team 1 includes John Katsoudas, CEO, Influit Energy; Quinn Campbell, Shop Sherpa, mHUB, Zilvinas Peciura, President DeviceDev Consulting; Cornerstone Research Group and Johnson Controls. Project team 2 includes Will Patton, CTO Developer, Motion Dynamics; Jose Cardona, Founder, Mechanical Design Labs; Baker Gregory; and Dave Anderson.
AMBU Bag Compression Device (ABCD): A machine that automatically squeezes a standard AMBU bag to replace manual squeezing in situations when the bag needs to be squeezed for long durations. Adjustments can be made to control the volume of air delivered to the patient's lungs, the number of breaths per minute, the speed of the breaths and the interval between breaths in and breaths out as a ratio. This uses simple automation components that are readily available, low cost and quickly scalable. The project team includes Bill Fienup, Director of Innovation Services, mHUB; Henry Africano, Founder of HANK Industries; Mike Rafferty, Owner of Rafferty Engineering; Nemera (Insight Product Development); Northwestern University; Innoblative; and Brightseed.
Powered Air-Purifying Respirator (PAPR) Device: Solution uses a diving mask, custom 3D-printed adapters, standard hoses, and a battery-powered filter box from off-the-shelf components. The device is easy to sanitize and adjust, it’s even easier to procure. The project team includes Roger Ady, CTO and Co-Founder of Jiobit; Mitul Patel CEO at MP Consulting; and PDT, an Astronics Company.
Open Source Face Shield: Over one weekend, we began working on a prototype for face shields to respond to a request from Northwestern. Our team had a working prototype within 2 hours – and pilots in hospital by Monday. A week later, the first shipment of 500 was in the hands of frontline healthcare workers at Northwestern and we are producing at a rate of about 1,500/day now and can potentially scale up to 100,000 each week with manufacturing partners. We’re working with health systems to assess broader demand. The project team included Bill Fienup, Director of Innovation Services, mHUB; David Mirkhaef, Prototyping Technician; Mitch Muller, Founder at SquareOne Produce Development; and Mihai Hogea, Co-Founder of Pepper Life, Inc.
Intubation Shield / Protective Dome:
This novel PPE device covers a patient’s head during intubation without limiting range of motion or visibility for the clinician. The device shields healthcare workers from aerosols from coughing, is low-cost, and can be sanitized and reused easily. The prototypes were given to University of Chicago, Northwestern, and Norwegian-American hospitals for clinical feedback.
The project team includes Mitch Muller, Founder of
SquareOne
Product Development; Alexander Chan, Founder at
Bakspacer
; and Matt McGregor, Founder
at Karman Innovations.
N95 Mask: Reusable mask strap is made out of silicon, a more durable material than traditionally-used elastic and a disposable filter. The product utilizes strong, non-traditional materials to avoid disrupting the current supply chain of N95 masks. The project team includes Luke Gray, Co-Founder of KOA; Mike Rafferty, Founder of Rafferty Engineering; Brian Donlin, Founder at Brian Donlin Design; Henry Africano, Founder of HANK Industries, and Carrie McGrath (Leman), Director of Research at Loring Human Factors.