3D-PRINTED MEDICAL SUPPLIES

Shortages of medical devices and protective equipment driven by the coronavirus pandemic have led medical workers and manufacturers to turn to 3D printing to fill the void.

However, the new technology still faces technical and legal hurdles before it can be fully deployed to address the shortfall.

Supplies of medical equipment and devices have been depleted in recent weeks by COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Hospitals have faced shortages of potentially life-saving ventilators as well as personal protective equipment, such as masks, to keep their doctors safe. And the rollout of coronavirus testing, crucial to identifying those with the virus and containing its spread, has also been slow, with the government scrambling to acquire more kits.

But the 3D printing industry and those with the technology are eager to help fill that void. The technology has been used to produce face masks, test kit swabs and some of the key components of ventilators.

Joseph Hanna, an acute care surgeon at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, told The Hill that he has managed to produce face masks in less than three hours using a printer he already owned.

Working with Rutgers University and other 3D printing hobbyists in the area, Hanna has produced crucial protective equipment for dozens of doctors working on the front lines of the pandemic in New Jersey, one of the hardest-hit states.

Hanna is not the only one to use 3D printing for masks — examples of similar efforts can be found across the country, and the world. Italian volunteers in Lombardy, a coronavirus hot spot, used 3D printing to make 100 valves after some breathing machines keeping people alive started to fail.

3D printing has been particularly critical in helping to boost the production of test swabs, many of which were originally made in China and Italy, two of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic.