EnvisionTEC Partners With Healthcare Community to fight against Global Pandemic COVID-19
Nasopharyngeal Swabs Printed in 3D Printer |
The Additive Manufacturing or 3D printing
industry has been working closely with the medical community for many
years. From the dental and hearing aid sectors, both of whom have adopted
3D printing as a primary method of production in a myriad of applications, to
the medical and biomedical fields, who have integrated 3D printing into
scientific research and the development of new medical devices, this
partnership has yielded thousands of invaluable improvements into the daily
lives of people the world over. EnvisionTEC has been at the forefront of these
cooperative efforts since 2002, paving the way for new solutions that could
only be made possible via 3D printing.
EnvisionTEC ONE 3D Printer |
In order to effectively treat the
growing number of COVID-19 patients, healthcare professionals and many other
essential workers rely heavily on PPE’s in order to safely maintain their own
health. Many mask designs are meant to be single-use, and with the
general public adding to the demand for these items, they are becoming
increasingly hard to come by. Again, 3D printing is an ideal solution,
allowing for portions of face shields to be printed and sterilized.
EnvisionTEC has a number of large 3D printers that can quickly and efficiently
print these parts in bulk, and many of their customers have been able to answer
the call for local needs.
Perhaps the biggest immediate need in
the fight against COVID-19 is simply identifying those who have been infected
as early as possible. Testing kit availability has been vastly
inadequate, and the medical community has been working tirelessly with the 3D
printing community to find a solution to mass-producing the nasopharyngeal
collection swabs to alleviate the shortage quickly. EnvisionTEC has been
working closely with the Harvard Microbiology Lab within a larger group
dedicated to connecting academia with the manufacturing industry to combat this
shortage.
To this end, EnvisionTEC engineers
have designed a collection tip for a flexible nasal swab. Brian Nilson,
of Nilson Laboratories, 3D printed the final design for testing. He was
able to print 400 of the swabs in Class 1 approved material E-Guide on his
Envision One cDLM in two hours. The testing process is comprised of a ten
stage mechanical testing, a two part absorption test, a biological/chemical
testing procedure to ensure the swab absorbs viral RNA particles and does not
interfere with PCA/reagents, and a sample collection testing procedure.
To pass, a sample needed to use a material that is approved as chemically safe,
would bend 180 degrees without breaking, and the design needed to be able to
safely collect enough virus particles from the nasal passage to effectively
test.
E-Guide
has passed some of these tests and is awaiting final IRB testing and approval.
Under FDA regulations, an IRB group that has been formally designated to review
and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects has the authority to
determine that E-Guide is suitable for the mass production of the NP swabs for
COVID-19 testing. EnvisionTEC has long been committed to providing
solutions to their customers and is now preparing to take on the call to action
of helping to equip medical professionals with the tools needed to help combat
this global pandemic. With a vast network of thousands of customers eager
to help, EnvisionTEC is proud to offer the capability of producing hundreds of
thousands of the swab per day.
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