Healthcare workers face unprecedented risks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is highly contagious and is transmitted via respiratory droplets, with evidence suggesting the possibility of airborne transmission. Air and surface contamination has been demonstrated four meters from the source. Nosocomial transmission from patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome to healthcare workers has been reported, while many institutions face shortages of personal protec...

At PAL Robotics we are already regularly customizing and adapting our robots so that they can be used in European-funded research projects. The overall aim of these projects is to make new robot uses, such as widespread use in hospitals and residential homes, a reality. Such testing of our robots in new scenarios therefore makes them viable to be quickly incorporated into medical settings to help fight coronavirus (COVID-19).




Our robots including ARI, TIAGo and TIAGo Ba...

With ROBERT, the company Life Science Robotics (LSR) has developed a robot for mobilizing patients. Especially in times of social distancing, the robot-based medical device ROBERT can support physiotherapists in their work. The lightweight robot LBR Med from KUKA is used for this purpose.

The robot-based medical device ROBERT supports physiotherapists in their work. Technical assistants can be used in particular when people have to keep their distance from each other in order to preven...

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our society to evaluate our core values and ethics. In a crisis like none other, health care facilities and physicians are now facing shortages of ventilators, beds, and even basic personal protective equipment. Many physicians are already facing a profound ethical dilemma: how to allocate these resources during shortages; with some hospitals, states and countries even having to establish policies on which groups of patients to prioritize in ...

We read with interest the report by Blanco and colleagues of five people living with HIV who were admitted to a Barcelona hospital with COVID-19. We believe that caution is required before drawing conclusions on the outcome of COVID-19 in this population. 

Evidence is evolving that protease inhibitors developed for the treatment of HIV, both lopinavir and darunavir boosted by ritonavir or cobicistat, are not efficacious against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavi...

3D Printing manufacturers are committed to supporting a united front to address shortages and rising demand triggered by COVID-19 to better help efforts that protect the lives of those impacted by this global pandemic.




Support for medical device/equipment manufacturers and hospitals/hospital systems:

The 3DP community is already mobilizing resources to support critical needs. Please access website for more information.




Join the Initiative:
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Caracol-AM, a 3D printing provider in Italy, is manufacturing face shields and masks using both its proprietary extrusion system mounted on a KUKA industrial robotic arm and more traditional fused deposition modeling printers. According to KUKA, the company is producing 1,000 parts daily for use by local healthcare workers.
America Makes has announced the winners of its Fit to Face – Mask Design Challenge, hosted with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The designs had to meet the req...

The coronavirus spreading across the globe could become a constant presence, a leading World Health Organization official has said.

During a media briefing in Geneva, Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's health emergencies program, warned Wednesday that the disease may join the mix of viruses that kill people around the world every year.

"This virus just may become another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away. HIV hasn't gone away," Rya...

The global pandemic that we are living poses a major challenge for society at all levels. In these moments of uncertainty, IRB Barcelona has put what it knows best, cutting-edge research, at the service of the public.

IRB Barcelona’s efforts are focused on two lines of action. The first is participation in the mass PCR-based screening initiative of the Orfeu Programme, driven by  the Government of Catalonia, in collaboration with the research centres CRG, IBEC and CNAG.

The ...

A test to find out whether people have been infected with coronavirus in the past has been approved by health officials in England.

Public Health England said the antibody test, developed by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, was a "very positive development".

The blood test looks for antibodies to see if a person has already had the virus and might now have some immunity.

Until now, officials have said such tests are not reliable enough.






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Lecturer Maite López, from the Research Group Virtual Worlds Visualization and Artificial Intelligence (WAI) of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the UB, worked on a simple simulation model to explain in a disseminating way how the COVID-19 spread occurs.




This multiagent model -field in which López works-, represents a population with different profiles: healthy, infected and immune. A graphic shows how such population evolves over time in different sit...

Speech droplets generated by asymptomatic carriers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are increasingly considered to be a likely mode of disease transmission. Highly sensitive laser light scattering observations have revealed that loud speech can emit thousands of oral fluid droplets per second. In a closed, stagnant air environment, they disappear from the window of view with time constants in the range of 8 to 14 min, which corresponds to droplet nuclei of c...