Ingenuity during the COVID-19 pandemic: a controlled experiment for respirator mask efficacy testing,BMJ Innovations

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Ingenuity during the COVID-19 pandemic: a controlled experiment for respirator mask efficacy testing
BMJ Innovations ( IF 1.4 ) Pub Date : 2020-12-17 , DOI: 10.1136/bmjinnov-2020-000514
Michael Hausman ₁ , Danil Rybalko ₁ , Philip Nasser ₁ , Damien Laudier ₁ , Daniel Charen ₁ , Emily Ferreri ₁ , James Iatridis ₁ , Leesa Galatz ₁

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© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. INTRODUCTION In early December 2019, the first COVID-19 pneumonia cases were identified in Wuhan, China. The virus quickly spread throughout the world and New York City became one of the major epicentres. For healthcare providers, one of the most effective modes of protection against infection is personal protective equipment (PPE). However many hospital systems did not initially possess sufficient PPE reserves, particularly N95 masks. 7 Due to the severe shortage of respirator masks, healthcare organisations resorted to less conventional avenues of sourcing PPE. 8–10 However, there was concern that N95 masks purchased from international markets may have undergone less stringent certification. 12 During a time of low supply and high demand, these masks were the only available option for many healthcare workers. Unfortunately, the process of certifying the efficacy of respirator masks is lengthy and would delay distribution of masks to the frontlines by several weeks. Facing the impending shortage, our hospital located in New York City developed a novel device to serve as an affordable and fast screening tool for N95 masks acquired through alternative sources. Our hypothesis was that foreignmade N95 masks acquired through alternative resources would have the same particle filtration efficiency (PFE) as USmanufactured masks.

更新日期：2020-12-17

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