At the time of this post, we are still dealing with e after-effects of COVID-19's impact on the medical field. Thankfully, most manufacturers have bounced back and can produce more essentials to keep the general public safe, like N95 masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, etc., and have continued to make adjustments to existing devices to adhere to this massive need. I think the pandemic had put a huge strain on materials when it was at its peak last summer, and this pressure was felt the most felt in areas like hospitals, medical offices, and places of work that require a large staff. Thankfully, this has sparked a bit of innovation in medical devices for faster result times for tests and reusable PPE. I hope this spark of medical innovation will continue past this immediate need for COVID relief and put it ahead of the game for future disease protection and prevention.
Your observations on the previous and current status of the use of medical devices is accurate. The lack of medical devices caused a scare last year when the Covid 19 saw major numbers in death and the rate of spread. Some people and businesses did not have access to certain devices for protection. Masks, face shields, gloves were in high demand but the turn around time for the supply could not keep up initially. Now that we have a priority in those devices and resources it is available to more people and businesses. Covid 19 has caused a shift of importance in the devices that will help to prevent the spread and death during this pandemic. The time to receive these items after order is now faster and these devices have newer looks as well.
Thank you for preparing our children for the future. I agree with your viewpoint and at this time it seems that where we were once very divided as a country, there is seeming to be some meeting in the middle. It appears that this will be the new normal for the world as we adjust and come to terms with covid. Thanks for commenting, have a great week.
We are meeting in an interesting time, to say the least. As a disease, covid19 has many elements to its treatment and many of those elements use medical devices. There are ventilators and syringes, which we all think about constantly, but also remember that cotton swabs and oxygen masks are also classified as medical devices. Things that we take for granted may be part of this well-regulated industry.
Do some searching around and report back here with thoughts on how covid19 is changing the way medical devices are made, used, and/or developed.
COVID-19 has impacted so many aspects of life, especially in the medical field. That it has a huge strain on the medical care workers to changing the way medical devices are created. Due to COVID crisis the demands for PPE that is used for the workers to the oxygen masks for clients have been very hard to make sure the hospitals to nursing homes have a full supply. With numbers being on the rise again due to the Delta variant the demand is said to stay at a increased level. Companies are struggling to meet the demand and produce for it. I also would have to say that even with medical devices on the rise you need a good number of medical staff that are able to use the medical equipment on the patients such as oxygen masks, and devices used to intubate. Due to the demand the medical devices the prices have also rose. The FDA is also having to approve things in a faster time frame then what is usual for them. New companies are starting to emerge so hopefully a resolution found for this current dilemma.
At the peak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in March 2020, many hospitals were at the brink of collapse and as of August 26, 2021, we are now at another state of emergency in America due to the delta strain. The stock of valves needed to operate ventilators was dwindling and the manufacturer was unable to supply them at short notice back in March 2020 and hospitals still not have been able to recover due to shipping issues and shortages globally(Dana,2020). This issue is in dire need to be solved to help the increasing surge in the hospitals. In the EU, they are rethinking production of some medical devices through 3D printing. European Association of the Machine Tool Industries and related Manufacturing Technologies (CECIMO) had to first find a way to address and solve an immanent dilemma: first, how to balance the societal urge for a fast response with the protection of IP rights; secondly, how to deal with the public scrutiny and criticism that followed the industry’s reaction to the actions of the Fablab Milano, which cumulated into requests by the European Commission to loosen copyright during the crisis(Dana,2020). However, through this process, they were able to replicate items that were needed such as shield and parts for the ventilators.
Sources:
Dana Mahr, Sascha Dickel, Rethinking intellectual property rights and commons-based peer production in times of crisis: The case of COVID-19 and 3D printed medical devices, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, Volume 15, Issue 9, September 2020, Pages 711–717, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpaa124
At the peak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in March 2020, many hospitals were at the brink of collapse and as of August 26, 2021, we are now at another state of emergency in America due to the delta strain. The stock of valves needed to operate ventilators was dwindling and the manufacturer was unable to supply them at short notice back in March 2020 and hospitals still not have been able to recover due to shipping issues and shortages globally(Dana,2020). This issue is in dire need to be solved to help the increasing surge in the hospitals. In the EU, they are rethinking production of some medical devices through 3D printing. European Association of the Machine Tool Industries and related Manufacturing Technologies (CECIMO) had to first find a way to address and solve an immanent dilemma: first, how to balance the societal urge for a fast response with the protection of IP rights; secondly, how to deal with the public scrutiny and criticism that followed the industry’s reaction to the actions of the Fablab Milano, which cumulated into requests by the European Commission to loosen copyright during the crisis(Dana,2020). However, through this process, they were able to replicate items that were needed such as shield and parts for the ventilators.
Sources:
Dana Mahr, Sascha Dickel, Rethinking intellectual property rights and commons-based peer production in times of crisis: The case of COVID-19 and 3D printed medical devices, Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, Volume 15, Issue 9, September 2020, Pages 711–717, https://doi.org/10.1093/jiplp/jpaa124
I think COVID has definitely helped people think about the way they approach using specific medical devices. It has definitely caused individuals to consider the importance of having various medical devices for diagnostics, prevention, and for other recovery treatments.
We are meeting in an interesting time, to say the least. As a disease, covid19 has many elements to its treatment and many of those elements use medical devices. There are ventilators and syringes, which we all think about constantly, but also remember that cotton swabs and oxygen masks are also classified as medical devices. Things that we take for granted may be part of this well-regulated industry.
Do some searching around and report back here with thoughts on how covid19 is changing the way medical devices are made, used, and/or developed.
At the date of this post vaccines have already rolled out and have distributed themselves to a large portion of the population. Therefore, as a result, testing done for Covid19 has dropped as well. As we head into Winter in the coming months, the flu season also propagates itself in society. As a result, the CDC will request that the FDA drop the EUA on the 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay select by Dec 31 2021. This will be done in an effort to transition to a "multiplexed method", which will be able to distinguish both Covid19 and influenza viruses.
Although some of us may not at first realize that even the swabs used to test for Covid19 are regulated by the FDA, it is, and also considered to be a medical device. Another development as a result of the pandemic is the increased issuances of Emergency Use Authorizations or EUAs. Despite reported efficacy, the approval process does take time and recently the Pfizer vaccine was one to be granted this approval.
We are meeting in an interesting time, to say the least. As a disease, covid19 has many elements to its treatment and many of those elements use medical devices. There are ventilators and syringes, which we all think about constantly, but also remember that cotton swabs and oxygen masks are also classified as medical devices. Things that we take for granted may be part of this well-regulated industry.
Do some searching around and report back here with thoughts on how covid19 is changing the way medical devices are made, used, and/or developed.
One specific medical device that I think of when I think of COVID is N-95 mask. Pre-COVID, we would only see these mask in doctors offices or on people who very sick and could not risk breathing in germs. Now, you can not turn around without seeing a mask. When the need for mask shot up, the production of mask up and different variations of mask have been produced. Most of these mask can not even prevent you from smelling the person next to you let alone prevent you from catching the virus. The virus is changing how mask are made because they are producing lower quality mask since they have to make so many so quickly.
COVID 19 has impacted I believe every aspect of our daily lives now. From the way, we grocery shop, go to school, out in public, and even visit family and friends. Everything is different. The medical industry had the hardest impact from COVID. Medical devices took a hard hit with many areas running out of the necessary items needed to stop and control the spread. Many of the people behind making medical devices had to come up with new and innovative ways to make what we had better and to come up with something new that would be useful. They had to improvise solutions to many of the challenges they faced. The star medical devices that had everyone's attention were PPE and ventilators. ENgineers were coming up with ways how to 3D print face masks, new materials to use for gloves, and how to design a new vent. In some of the emergency projects, items were designed from scratch, while other hardware was reversed engineered from existing equipment, and sometimes a mixture of both methods was used.
Covid19 came through like a whirlwind and took the medical field by complete surprise. Just to see pictures of healthcare workers wearing trash bags to try to protect themselves because there was a shortage on gowns, was very disheartening. I knew there were shortages on PPE, but I never thought about how many other medical device supplies were in shortage as well. Things like thermometers, pulse oximeters, single use stethoscopes, etc. were also affected. Different organizations and industrial manufacturers that were not involved in healthcare supplies previously, were now supplying healthcare products. Non-traditional fabrication of medical equipment by use of low-cost 3D printing and laser cutting, now were used to produce face shields, masks, N95 masks, swabs, and more. Production processes had to be modified to facility time constraints and shipping modifications. Now the FDA has plans of allowing medical device manufacturers to have 180 days to secure marketing authorization as well as are in the process of transitioning devices bought to the market during covid19 to be available lawfully for marketing once the public health emergency is considered over.
I find it super interesting that we can view this discussion topic as the COVID-19 has aged over the course of 3 years. It was interesting seeing the skepticism people had toward the services, therapeutics, and medical devices offered through the health care system. Wearable monitoring systems for remote patients would allow for wireless transfer of vital patient information to healthcare providers and surveillance in hope of promoting health outcomes for out of office patients. Due to the ability to also increase contact tracking in real time as well as reduce exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the FDA approved EUAs for a few wearable remote monitoring devices for patient use kind of like how our smart watches operate. I think if you could suggest a medical device innovation for the pandemic what would it be? Also what steps or precautions would you take to reassure the public of its safety?
Sources:
Belhouideg, S. (2020). Impact of 3D printed medical equipment on the management of the Covid19 pandemic. The International Journal of Health Planning and Management, 35(5), 1014-1022.
Chepelev, L. L., & Rybicki, F. J. (2021). Sterilization of 3D Printed Parts Used as Medical Devices in the COVID-19 Pandemic. In 3D Printing in Medicine and Its Role in the COVID-19 Pandemic (pp. 107-113). Springer, Cham.
Saini, G., Budhwar, V., & Choudhary, M. (2022). Review on people’s trust on home use medical devices during Covid-19 pandemic in India. Health and Technology, 1-20.
I do not think Covid 19 is changing the way medical devices are made but rather changing the rate in which they are made. I am an Account Manager for Fisher Scientific and work with medical devices (research and clinical devices), consumables (syringes and pipets), and everything imaginable in a lab. Coronavirus isn't new so a new medical device is not necessary. However, the research and medical devices used in said research are new. The clinical medical devices are used the same but there are simply not enough to keep up with the influx of positive COVID patients. Manufacturers have had to get creative with supply chain shortages and increased demand, still, many of these medical devices are severely back ordered.
Covid-19 has affected the world in so many ways. There have been so many shortages for demanding supplies including PPE, medical devices, and equipment. The pandemic has caused the field of medical technology to create a crucial need for extremely rapid innovation and improvisation with limited resources. A hospital in Japan developed a way to turn a refuse bad into a long-sleeved plastic gown, which could be used for various procedures. Many engineers have been pulled from their normal day to day work to help address the crisis. They have been put up to some challenges but have managed to improvise solutions to build new ventilator systems and the production of 3D-printed face shields. The lessons learned from this pandemic has allowed manufacturers to have a secure back-up supply chains for future emergency situations.
