Rapid Innovations at MUSC

Rapid Innovations at MUSC

They have been in short supply, forcing the world to get more creative.

Career joined by the department of surgery center design, dr. michael yost is also joining us.

And dr. yost, welcome back and good to see you.

First and foremost, you come up with an innovative approach to solving the problem of mass shortages and tell us more.

Have is the safe cartridge system.

Military race for million systems, and essentially what it is, it's a filter cartridge, as you see here, which contains a hepa militarier, which filters out more than the n 95 mask, up to 95% of what's in the air, and it's used in ventilation systems in hospitals, and we found a way to put it into a nice simple package with a one-way valve that's on top to help with breathing, and we found a way to not only retro if i want this cartridge to masks, uses hospital supplies, but we create a mask to 3-d print and slap the cartridge onto the mask like so.

But bungee cords and you can create your own alternative to the n95 mask in the event of a shortage and emergency situation.

>> this is ingenious, and dr. yost how does this idea come about?

>> interestingly, we have our design effort going, and we started looking at what was going on in italy, and they were making ventilator valves, and we said let's start making some ventilator valves and we quickly got with the pulmonologist in the hospital and they said what we really need are masks, so we came one this prototype design and started using it in the hospital using their test methods and we have gotten success with t.

>> that's amazing, and we heard a lot in the country, they are ramping up the production of the masks and are we still experiencing shortages?

>> from our experience, we're still experiencing shortage and this is to help before they get the new designs out to us.

>> because they are using a 3-d printer, are they meeting the medical criteria to make them effective.

>> so we worked on a rigorous testing program.

And we tested them in the hospital and they do meet the criteria for our prototypes.

We're working on rigorous testing and quality control program to get the quality control we need to make sure that these are safe and effective to use.

>> joshua, it certainly looks like a good piece of equipment and how different are they from what we can make at home?

We have seen a lot of people getting cre creative and making their own face masks at home and stylish even and how different are they and how do they work from something that we can just sew together ourselves?

>> so with masks, you can sew together at home, you can use an elastic strap or piece of elastic behind your head.

You're when you're inhaling, it's not against your face.

So the filth filter is only worn one direction, and these masks are different in the sense that they do kind of conform to your face, and we have the sealers to give you a nice cushion around your face to you get a proper seal.

Getting a proper seal was one of the requirements for prototypes, and the filter is not effective because you're not getting everything from the environment filtered out.

>> i see, i need to go to break and commercial and i have a lot of questions for you.

And also talking about availability and who these masks are right now, standard issue what third be doing, but the guidance is if you can't get ppe, personal protective equipment, use a scarf or bandanna, but in an emergency, this mask could be used to filter the air that you're breathing.

>> and as far as how many you can produce, and how long it takes to make one mask, maybe you can give us a little bit more information on that.

>> right, when it comes to printing the masks at your face or library, the cartridge, it can take two or three hours for the print be component and another for the assembly, which can be broken down to 20, and the mask itself will take 10-12 hours to print.

However, the mask itself, the manage component is reusable.

You can sterilize t.

And clean t.

And so this part is reuse annual despite the long print times, and then you have the cartridge, which is short.

>> we know that some high schools in the area have 3-d printers, so if we got all of these working around the clock, seven days a week, we could conceive of quite a few masks being made for our medical professionals, is that right?

>> yes, definitely.

>> and what is the cost?

Everyone is concerned about cost.

>> so cost wise, we use a few cents of printer plastic, which is relatively inexpensive.

The seal material is relatively inexpensive, so the largest cost was the purchase of the pleated filter from the hardware store that we got, and those were like about 10 or $15 apiece, and then i think we can get eight or ten cartridges out of each one.

>> now, has the fda approved this?

And how soon can we see doctors wearing these snacks.

>> -- masks.

>> we are working diligently with the fda.

We contacted them early on.

And they are asking for a disinfecting test on the mask itself.

And they're working with that.

And they have also asked for a splash test.

And once we complete that date a.

We'll be send be it to them.

They have been very good at reaching out to us and good at getting back to us, but as you imagine, they are inundated with thousands of requests for these things.

So hopefully soon, we'll being getting the data over to them where they can help us.

>> time is of the essence, and we can't waste any time.

A couple more questions for you real quick, for the rest of u.

We did touch on the homemade masks.

Is a homemade mask better than no mask, in your opinion?

>> so in my opinion, if it's not an n95 or better mask, it's not likely to it filter virus particles, and you should be aware of that.

Any mask is going to help with splatter or droplets or particulates.

But i think we should be aware if a if it's not n-95 or better, it's not going to filter down to the size of particles that we're concerned with.

>> so social distances, that's where we need to be, most diligent.

And one last question for you both.

We had talked about masks but ventilators.

Those are so in need right now.

Does nusc have any plans coming up with a solution to supply more ventilators?

Is that something that nusc can do?

Though i work with the pulmonologist, i don't work with the ventilators, but they're working to get as many as we possibly can on the floor, expecting a surge of patients relatively soon.

>> yes, definitely.

I want to thank you so much, dre want to wish you the best of luck.

We hope to see the masks in play real soon.

>>