With the focus and intensity befitting a life-or-death race against the clock, Jefferson’s textiles, fashion, design, engineering, and other communities have united in an effort to protect those fighting to save lives amid the COVID-19 epidemic.
“These are interdisciplinary efforts,” explains Dr. Mark Tykocinski, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Jefferson. “Projects like these speak to our university’s push to bridge medicine with our strengths in textile engineering, industrial design and mechanical engineering and are part of our broader vision.”
JeffMask and JeffVent, names coined by Dr. Tykocinski during the working group sessions that helped formalize the ideas, are focused on two primary goals.
One team is working to create as much personal protective equipment—or PPE—as possible to help protect healthcare workers at TJUH as they treat patients, at a time when supplies are not forecasted to meet the expected demand. This includes surgical masks, N95 covers, face shields and—among other things—protective suits. They are also investigating ways to potentially sterilize existing items to extend their usage life span.
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| Jefferson's Michael Leonard takes a look at the textiles involved in the JeffMask effort. |
Simultaneously, a separate team is working on prototypes for a “ventilator hack” in the hopes of mitigating the likely scarcity of the life-saving machines, at a time when the number of patients is expected to rise exponentially in the coming weeks and months.
Complicating matters is the fact that team members are forced to work in isolation, or observe proper social-distancing rules when together in person, which is a rarity with the University’s adherence to Gov. Tom Wolf’s stay-at-home order.
“We’re doing what a research-and-development lab would be doing, but remotely, and under siege conditions,” says Michael Leonard, academic dean of the School of Design and Engineering and point person for the JeffVent effort. “The textile design and engineering disciplines have been responsible for creating the materials used in masks, gowns and other forms of PPE since these items were originally created.
Still, they are buoyed by seeing an outpouring of support and desire to contribute from afar, while keeping apprised of progress via regular Zoom meetings and an always-expanding “Jefferson Emergency Projects” folder on Dropbox.
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| Hayward Hall's Power Weaving Center is one of many sites involved in the JeffMask initiative. |
“When the first shortages were projected, textile designers and engineers, garment designers, production and testing experts, and many other fashion and textile members of the School of Design and Engineering’s extended textile family reached out to ask what they might do to help,” Leonard explains. “Support came from all areas of the supply chain.”
There has been substantial progress made over the course of the past three weeks, but the teams are still diligently working toward tangible solutions and products, which would be manufactured by corporate partners or, in the case of some mask prototypes, woven or knit on campus and cut and sewn at the homes of faculty members.
Marcia Weiss, director of the Fashion and Textiles Futures Center and the textile design programs, is leading the JeffMask charge.
Leonard says that all of their work will be open source and made available for others to replicate in their communities.
“We’re not competing with anybody,” Leonard says. “We are trying to solve the problems and are already sharing our information with hundreds of people. … Shortages of materials we usually take for granted usually give rise to innovative workarounds, and innovative workarounds usually give rise to new product development. This disaster is no different.”
Weiss noted that “it is clear that there is a massive need for PPE during this pandemic” and lauded “countless” individuals, businesses and industry partners that have offered to help.
She described the effort, which is informed by fiber and textile science and engineering, as an “accelerated, iterative design process, quickly moving from ideas to initial samples to more fully resolved prototypes.” Industry partners involved in the effort include MTL, Knoll Textiles, WL Gore, Harbor Linen, Noble Biomaterials and Langhorne Carpet. These corporate partners are so important because of supply chain concerns forcing the need for items to be made locally.
Among the members of the JeffVent team are Tod Corlett, an industrial designer, professor, and director of the industrial design programs. Late last week, a vent-hack prototype that he’d worked up was being sent to the clinical side for testing.
What they aim to do is become “instant experts” across a wide array of fields, while supporting the “real experts” as they work to save lives on the medical frontlines.
“The prototypes we are making are about understanding the problem better,” Corlett says. “We recognize better than most, how far from being ready for patient care they are. We know we’re not doctors.
“Anything the global ventilator development effort proposes will need to be reviewed swiftly but completely by clinicians and regulators before can be safely used on patients. We’re here to help with that,” he continues. “We hope Jefferson’s new connections between design, engineering and clinical practice may help us contribute to solutions quickly enough to matter.”
Weiss breaks down the ongoing approach as looking to tackle “immediate needs and long-term considerations.”
“It’s incredible to see how many people stepped up to say, ‘Tell me what I can do,’” she concludes. “It’s rare to get the opportunity to work for the good of the public as a whole, but with our experience and training, this is what we have the opportunity to do now.”
To read the original article by Brian Hickey, click here.
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