Following up on their efforts to fabricate masks and other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for local hospitals, a team of Harvard University-based designers and medical professionals are working to design new PPE devices, including what is known as a Patient Isolation Hood (PIH). 

The hood, according to an article posted on the Harvard Graduate School of Design website, consists of a molded plastic shield that is placed between a patient and attending doctors. The shield allows doctors to perform necessary and life-saving procedures on infectious patients, including intubation and other procedures, while protecting the doctors from infection and limiting the potential spread of pathogens. 

GSD’s website states, “GSD’s Digital Fabrication Specialist Chris Hansen has collaborated with an array of Harvard and GSD colleagues to design two PIH prototypes, fabricating them on April 13 and delivering them to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) on April 14. Hansen and colleagues spent much of April 15 on continued design and prototyping; by the end of this week, the GSD aims to have produced between 20 and 30 PIHs for a trial run in MGH’s intensive care unit.“

Additional collaborators for the project include GSD Lecturer in Architecture Zach Seibold; Nathan Phipps, a researcher at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering; Eric Höweler, Associate Professor of Architecture at the GSD; and Saurabh Mhatre, a research associate at the GSD’s Material Processes and Systems Group. In addition, Dr. Samuel Smith, an anesthesiologist at MGH and instructor at Harvard Medical School, is assisting by helping to ensure that the designs adhere to accepted medical-design guidelines.

According to the report, much of the design work for the PIH prototype has taken place over the last two weeks via a dedicated Slack channel titled “Full Body Protection MGB” that is shared between the project partners.

The design and fabrication team anticipate that they will produce 20 to 30 PIH devices for initial testing at MGB.