University Hospital Leuven in Belgium has begun using the Materialise Passive NIP (non-invasive positive end-expiratory pressure) mask to treat its first patients. The device is meant to deliver oxygen and high pressure to a patient’s lungs, pushing back the fluids in the lung to allow for greater oxygen absorption into the bloodstream. The mask is made up of a 3D-printed connector that holds together three standard medical devices—a mask, an air filter and a PEEP valve—and is hooked ...

Several European partners are involved in a 3D printing project that could aid in the development of lower cost vaccines, including vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. Dubbed NESSIE, the project uses high resolution ceramic 3D printing, provided by Lithoz, to produce chromatographic columns purifying adenoviruses, which can be deployed as vectors for delivering genes or vaccine antigens to humans. The goal of the project is to increase the efficiency with which vac...

Doctors at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal have used 3D printing to produce ventilator parts and increase SARS-CoV-2 testing in such a way that they claim has reduced costs substantially. An Al Jazeera report does not specify exactly what parts are being printed for ventilators, but we’ve reached out to the Institut Pasteur to learn more. The segment suggests that, by 3D printing ventilator parts, engineers have been able to develop ventilators that cost just $60 compared to impo...

The catalan photographer Jordi Borràs has captured the marks that the PPE leaves on healthcare worker's face after a long journey fighting against COVID-19.




Photo extracted from the the photographer's Instagram page @jordiborrasfoto

Achieving herd protection can stop the spread of an infectious disease within a population, but as experts from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health explain, the U.S. is nowhere near that point with SARS-CoV-2, and getting there could prove difficult
When the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 first began to spread, virtually nobody was immune. Meeting no resistance, the virus moved quickly through communities, and ultimately around the world. In the absence of an effe...

Researchers from the Respiratory biophysics and bioengineering IDIBAPS research group, the Biophysics and Bioengineering Unit of the University of Barcelona and the CIBERES have created a non-invasive low-cost ventilator, to support patients with respiratory diseases in areas with limited means. Researchers published the results of the study in the European Respiratory Journal together with open source technical features to build it.
Non-invasive ventilators are usually used to treat patie...

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19 respiratory disease, has infected over 2.3 million people, killed over 160,000, and caused worldwide social and economic disruption. There are currently no antiviral drugs with proven clinical efficacy, nor are there vaccines for its prevention, and these efforts are hampered by limited knowledge of the molecular details of SARS-CoV-2 infection. To address this, these scientifics cloned, tagged and expressed 26 of the 29 SA...

NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) are inviting coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to participate in a virtual hackathon May 30-31 dedicated to putting open data to work in developing solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the global Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge, participants from around the world will create virtual teams that – during a 48-hour period ...

NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) are inviting coders, entrepreneurs, scientists, designers, storytellers, makers, builders, artists, and technologists to participate in a virtual hackathon May 30-31 dedicated to putting open data to work in developing solutions to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the global Space Apps COVID-19 Challenge, participants from around the world will create virtual teams that – during a 48-hour period ...

SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus and causing COVID-19, has given rise to a worldwide pandemic. So far, tens of thousands of COVID-19 patients have been clinically cured and discharged, but multiple COVID-19 cases showed SARS-CoV-2 positive again in discharged patients, which raises an attention for the dis- charged patients. Also, there is an urgent need to understand the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Here, you can read postmortem pathologic study in a ready-for- dischar...

Abstract
The ongoing pandemic is having a collateral health effect on delivery of surgical care to millions of patients. Very little is known about pandemic management and effects on other services, including delivery of surgery. In this article, a scoping review of all available literature pertaining to COVID‐19 and surgery, using electronic databases, society websites, webinars and preprint repositories was performed.
Several perioperative guidelines have been issued within a short ti...

Recognizing that patients prioritize convenient and inexpensive care, Duffy and Lee recently asked whether in-person visits should become the second, third, or even last option for meeting patient needs. Previous work has specifically described the potential for using telemedicine in disasters and public health emergencies. No telemedicine program can be created overnight, but U.S. health systems that have already implemented telemedical innovations can leverage them for the response to Covid...