COVID-19 - Development of resilient design and manufacturing strategy for reusable personal protective equipment

随着COVID-19大流行持续升级，FFR等关键PPE的全球短缺对直接与患病个体工作的前线医护专业人员不利，导致医护人员与患者之间的病毒传播风险增加。这种无法获得关键个人防护设备的情况突出表明，加拿大需要建立自己的独立供应链，以在需要的时候规避全球对个人防护设备的限制。个人防护设备供应的风险包括原材料采购、制造能力以及向医疗保健提供者和急救人员的分发。通过建立自己的可靠和安全的供应平台，加拿大将能够为其一线工作人员提供在大流行期间执行重要的卫生和护理任务所需的适当个人防护设备的持续来源。 在爱德华王子岛省卫生和健康部（DHW）的支持下，该伙伴关系的目标是与位于爱德华王子岛的Topdog制造公司（TDM）合作，为可重复使用的个人防护设备制定弹性设计和制造战略。这一战略将认识到灵活制造的必要性，允许快速生产工具以及定制当地可用的制造工艺和材料。 这一伙伴关系的潜在成果和影响包括： - 提高爱德华王子岛和加拿大的制造能力，以快速和紧迫地开发个人防护设备; - 解决爱德华王子岛和加拿大极端短缺的防护口罩需求，从而保护一线卫生和基本工作人员。

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to escalate, the global shortage of crucial PPE such as FFRs has been detrimental to frontline healthcare professionals that work directly with sickened individuals, resulting in an increased risk of viral transmission between care providers and their patients. This inability to source crucial PPE highlights the need for Canada to establish its own independent supply chains to circumvent global limitations of PPE in severe times of need. Risks to the supply of PPE include the procurement of raw material, manufacturing capacity, and distribution to health care providers and emergency personnel. By creating its own reliable and secure supply platforms, Canada will be able to provide its frontline workers with a constant source of the proper PPE needed to perform vital health- and care-giving tasks during a pandemic. With the support of Department of Health and Wellness (DHW) in the province of Prince Edward Island (PEI), the goals of this partnership are to work with Topdog Manufacturing (TDM), a company based in PEI, to develop a resilient design and manufacturing strategy for reusable PPE. This strategy will recognize the need for flexible manufacturing, allowing for the rapid production of tooling as well as customization for locally available manufacturing processes and materials. The potential outcomes and impacts of this partnership include: - Increasing the manufacturing capacity in PEI and Canada for rapid and urgent development of PPE; - Addressing the need for protective masks in an extreme shortage in PEI and Canada, and therefore protecting the frontline health and essential workers.