open.PAPR (open.Powered Air-Purifying Respirator)

Have you ever asked yourself..

• Why healthcare professionals have a high risk of developing COVID-19 (the disease)?

• If the hundreds of healthcare professionals who died due to COVID-19 had adequate personal protection equipment at their workplace?

• How staff could have been protected so that hospitals did not have to be closed (in Germany at least three hospitals or clinical had to be closed due to infected staff)?

• How dentists could work safely?

• If using FFPx masks is really adequate personal protective equipment for SARS (version 1 and todays variant), especially if the masks are used longer than 2-3 hours, and in the worst case, "sterilized" and reused?

• If we provide the most important people caring for the sick with what is adequate or just with whatever is available?

• Is it right to invest billions of Euros in single-use equipment?

• Why have both the US CDC and the RKI both designated other equipment as alternatives to FFPx masks and face shields? US CDC / DE RKI](https://www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/ Ressourcen_schonen_Masken.pdf)

• Is it right to keep designs away from the public in a pandemic?

• How the patients feel, when they can't even see the face of the healthcare professional?

• If the healthcare professionals could spend more time with the patients if they had better protective equipment?

• Who is it the patient sees in the seconds the sedating drug is injected before they are intubated?

open.PAPR - how it all started

I started with this project in the versusvirus hackathon in Switzerland. From there I went to helpfullETH, from there to helpfulengineering.org. I am not alone anymore, we are contributors from Switzerland, the UK, the USA, South Africa - and a designer from Milan, Italy. Up until today we have formed the team, the plan is in a final-draft state, the requirements are being worked on as are concepts and solutions and the design.

How does one reach approval and certification?

open.PAPR is an engineering project, PAPR's are classified as a CAT III protective device. This means:

• We plan
• We train
• We asses risks
• We specify
• We release specifications after a review
• We build
• We try it out
• We release our product for testing
• We test if all required parts have been installed
• We test if it works
• We write a report, referring to all the work done
• We hand it over for validation

And: We do this in the open, as volunteers. In our free time.

For the healthcare professionals all over the world

Further reading

• Gowning/Doffing masks poses a risk for infection

• PAPR's don't impact sterility during operations (are you sure that motorcycle accident patient is negative?

• Emergency cesarean section on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2) confirmed patient.

• Use of PAPR's during SARS-v1 - SARS-COV-2 is the third coronae to appear in less than 20 years - who knows when the next will jump species?

• The Use and Effectiveness of Powered Air Purifying Respirators in Health Care: Workshop Summary

Built With

• hardware