Delivering 750 new face shields
PROJECT LEADS: Diego Fonstad
ANY OTHER PERTINENT ORGANIZATION: Lectrify UCSF, CMPC, John Muir Health, Spring Hill Medical and Bellevue Hospital in NYC
Easter Delivery of 750th EDC-designed Face Shield
Diego Fonstad shares his first hand experience of sharing much needed PPE over the Easter weekend.
EDC Face Shields
Over 700 shields were deployed over Easter Weekend
BACKGROUND
Over the last three weeks, EDC members have been leading several initiatives related to keeping our frontline providers safe. Diego Fonstad, a San Francisco-based designer has been at the frontlines of creating and prototyping new face shields. The idea is simple: be as close to official PPE as possible, be easy to make, get them into the field quickly. In this post, Diego shares his first hand experiences in ramping up the fabrication of these shields, the partnerships he’s cultivated, and the experience of getting them into the hands of doctors and nurses.
FROM DIEGO:
On Easter Sunday I picked up my 750th face shield visor and thanks to your humbling contributions, face shields have been delivered to numerous health systems including UCSF, CMPC, John Muir Health, Spring Hill Medical and even Bellevue Hospital in NYC.
Applying #designthinking to the #PPEshortage with @EmergDesign means more than simply making PPE but also promoting a more #Sustainable solution. All PPE include re-use instructions, the disposable culture is part of the problem. #neverletacrisisgotowaste pic.twitter.com/v7PMuqWgiF
— Lectrify (@lectrifyit) April 6, 2020
My numbers don’t show the full story because many of you have been delivering directly: Rob Morrill who has also been making for www.agentsoffaceshield.com, police and firefighters and Corinne Takara who has delivered over 100 face shields to the Center for Farmworkers. (I apologize in advance if I omit a shout out to anyone… the contributions have been amazing and hard to keep full track of)
This diverse group is represented by a broad range of schools including Athenian, Castilleja School, Children’s Day School, Hamlin, Moreau Catholic, Nueva School, Orinda Public Schools and St. Thomas Apostle. Members also include many individual makers and the jaw-dropping 3D printer farm a CircuitLaunch in Oakland (imagine a room full of 3d Printers, each optimized to print in less than an hour, churning out face shields, THANK YOU CircuitLaunch!)
NOW WHAT? TL:DR
1. Keep printing… and transition to the attached STL (no previous versions will go to waste, this one is simply optimized for production scale up)
2. Contact me directly if you want to become a local hub.
Should you keep making face shields? YES! For those of you who are more data driven, here are the astounding PPE needs as calculated by Johns Hopkins (it doesn’t call out face shields but they are equivalent in use to the masks) :
We can’t take our foot off the gas, in fact, the last two weeks have only been Phase 1 of production: working out the details of how to scale and deliver products that will be accepted by health care systems.
PHASE 2: EXPANDING PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION
Product: The visor itself has undergone some minor modifications to improve production and re-usability. It is based on the NIH approved Budmen model but has been modified to use a 3 Hole punched shield and also has open loop hooks that allow for a broader range of elastic options and the piecing out of production.
Design Thinking means more than just making: On of the causes of our current PPE shortage is the disposable nature of PPE. That is why we have been deliberate in not simply making more PPE but also identifying the model we feel can address this problem. We hope to seize this crisis to start changing mindsets and include the attached insert with every PPE to encourage re-use. Feel free to copy and modify for your own uses.
Scale Up- Divide and Conquer: Until now I have been the central hub for this group and I have bene working hard to document the process so that we can distribute the hubs locally. The role of the hub is to be the central coordinator of materials and manufacturing and final packaging. Scale and social distancing require that the work be distributed but the hub is necessary for procurement and distribution of key material, and final packaging to present a uniform product. NOTE: The hub model can use students as a distributed work force so if you have students looking for ways to participate, let me know.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I am looking for volunteers to become hubs. Please contact me if you would like to learn more.
Thank you all again and keep making!
-Diego
The card accompanying each delivery of these new shields.