A Northern Ireland thermoforming entrepreneur with the assistance of a number of stakeholders including Clinical Engineering Innovation at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, a consultant anaesthetist from the Western Trust and Cambridge based voluntary engineers, has developed a sophisticated thermoformed plastic box, which will help in the prevention of disease transmission to clinical staff and other patients.
The piece of protective equipment known as the ‘Head Box’, sits neatly over a patient’s head allowing a medical practitioner such as an anaesthetist and two assistants, to work on a patient when intubating them or connecting them to a ventilator.
During this procedure, it is normal for the patient to expel a spray of large and small droplets. In medical circles, this is known as an aerosol generating procedure and if the patient has COVID-19, then this could increase chance of airborne transmission.
The remarkable invention came about after a conversation between the thermoforming entrepreneur, managing director of Donite Plastics, Michael Knight, and Dr Madalina McCrea (Mada), who works as a consultant anaesthetist in the Western Trust.
Michael Knight, managing director of Donite Plastics, said, ‘’Mada knew I made things from plastic and we were chatting about a device that would sit over a patient’s head, whether in a ward or an intensive care unit which would allow the medical practitioner to work on the patient, but also to protect them and the patient when carrying out procedures. There were pictures on the Internet of very simple square acrylic boxes being used for this purpose in Taiwan during the height of their COVID-19 epidemic.”
‘’I mentioned the ‘Head Box’ to Sarah (his daughter) in passing, as I thought she might be interested. She was quite excited and put me in touch with a colleague from her previous job – Maighread Ireland, a Clinical Engineer based in the Clinical Engineering Innovation Team at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.”
He concludes: “By coincidence, it turned out that Maighread had already been tasked by Addenbrooke’s to investigate these ‘Head Box’ devices. It made perfect sense then, that they would collaborate to develop a more sophisticated product suitable for use in the UK.”
“From the start we knew we wanted to form the device from a single piece of plastic so there would be no joins or sharp corners, to make it easy to clean and disinfect. The part also had to be crystal clear at the places where the clinician would be looking through it at the patient.”
‘’We are now working on reduction plates, so that the ‘Head Box’ can fit any size of hospital bed and better versions of the plugs to seal up the arm holes when they are not in use. Full production will commence within two weeks, such is our confidence and that of the stakeholders in this project,” he added.