From Face Masks to the AmboVent, Makerspaces & Hobbyists Are Rescuing the Healthcare Supply Chain
DIY makerspaces are our new research hubs, test labs, and medical suppliers as hospitals adopt emergency solutions in the fight against Covid-19.
On Monday, March 23, 26-year-old Lior Trestman attended a virtual meeting with Yale hospital representatives, Yale scientists, and the executive director of the New Haven Manufacturing Association. One item on the meeting agenda was how Trestman and others in the New Haven maker community could help produce medical face shields — crucial pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) that were becoming nearly impossible to find in the Covid-19 pandemic. Yale received 1,000 newly minted and disinfected face shields the following Monday, March 30. A few miles across the city, the National Guard was staging an emergency field hospital at one of Connecticut’s four state universities.
Hospitals across the globe are facing equipment shortages, and new or rarely used tools are proving helpful in the fight against coronavirus hour by hour, day by day. For weeks, the maker movement has known of its potential to patch the healthcare supply chain. These do-it-yourself (DIY) enthusiasts have not spent the past weeks sitting idly…
