Innovative COVID-19 PPE face shields developed at EMHS commence production

EMHS's Centre for Implant Technology and Retrieval Analysis (CITRA) has begun producing ten thousand face shields to help protect medical staff across WA during the COVID-19 emergency.

The face shields where developed in record time by CITRA's biomedical engineers Dr David Morrison, Dr Alan Kop, Mr Ryan Collier, Dr Moreica Pabbruwe and Dr Anastasia Nilasaroya.

CITRA will oversee the production of two types of face shields at a Malaga based production company – a standard shield to be used by general hospital staff as well as a more specialised design for Ear, Nose and Throat surgery.

CITRA has a long history of medical device design, manufacture and regulation, and has a world-renowned team of experts were best-placed to lead this project.

"Our team, along with the rest of EMHS, could see the devastating impact COVID-19 was having in countries where the virus was already prevalent," said Dr Morrison.

"We wanted to make sure that healthcare workers at EMHS and throughout WA could have access to the PPE they required."

Designing a high-quality face shield that meets the requirements for COVID-19 PPE was a challenge, one that required the collaboration between CITRA, the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research (Perkins) and the University of Western Australia (UWA).

"While a face shield might seem like a simple device, the team did a lot of hard work to come up with a design that could be manufactured locally in large quantities to a high standard," said Dr Morrison.

"We worked closely with our partners from Perkins and UWA, along with our industry partners to achieve this outcome."

"There were challenges securing reliable supplies of the components which make up the face shields as these were now in high demand."

"Achieving certification from the Therapeutic Goods Administration was also a significant challenge and it is a credit to the team that we could achieve this in a very short amount of time."

This project is an example of the innovative work taking place at EMHS and will make a vital contribution to the collective effort to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on the WA community.

The team at CITRA have been approached by numerous people to make PPE and other medical devices in response to the COVID-19 emergency. These requests and ideas come from a range of people from doctors with good ideas to industry groups to other scientists/engineers working outside of health.

Working closely with WA's Chief Scientist Dr Peter Klinken, who is assisting to coordinate the industry response to COVID-19, CITRA will continue to use their world class expertise in medical device design and manufacturing to help the WA community.