Patient Innovation solutions to fight back against COVID-19

2020 brought with it an unexpected challenge: the outbreak of the new coronavirus. The first cases of infection were identified in China at the end of 2019 but the virus quickly spread to the rest of the World, causing the WHO to declare a pandemic on March 11 2020. It quickly became clear that humanity was facing an unprecedent challenge: numbers of confirmed cases of infection and deaths rising every day; overwhelmed healthcare services, lacking essential equipment necessary to provide care to the patients; governments applying extraordinary measures of social distancing and lockdown.

But, in the midst of this crisis, something else happened. People, all around the world, started coming together to fight this disease! Several new and innovative solutions started arising everywhere, to solve the challenges the world faces. Once again, citizens are showing their overwhelming capacity to overcome every obstacle by uniting with a common goal.

At Patient Innovation, we understand the value of solutions developed by users and caregivers all around the World. As such, we created a webpage specifically dedicated to COVID-19 solutions:

patient-innovation.com/condition/covid-19

It was clear to us that the importance of the community and the value of sharing becomes even greater in situations of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic we are facing right now.

Prototype of the OxyGEN ventilator, developed in Barcelona. Read more here.

Dr. Charlene Babcock implements strategy to connect 4 patients to a single ventilator. Read more here.

Students in Taiwan designed a Lego robot that automatically dispenses hand sanitizer. Read more here.

A volunteer from Invisible hands delivers groceries to an 80-year-old, in New York. Read more here.

3D-printed door handle that allows doors to be opened without direct hand contact. Read more here.

Former homeless, Terence Lester, supplied the homeless with public hand washing stations. Read more here.

At the moment, there are 160 solutions available in the platform and the Patient Innovation team will continue to work every day to find and share solutions created around the world to fight this disease. If you are developing or you are aware of any initiative related to COVID-19, please share it with us!

Institutional support for the Patient Innovation Covid-19 platform

Patient Innovation was one of the digital platforms selected to be a part of the "Gulbenkian Covid-19 Digital Solutions" initiative, promoted by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian and EDP, with the support of Cuatrecasas. More details about this initiative and a list of all the projects included can be found here.

The Patient Innovation Covid-19 platform was also one of the winners of the Prémios Caixa Social 2021, an edition especially dedicated to supporting initiatives that are helping society cope with the pandemic.

We are thankful for the recognition and support, which will allow us to further develop our platform and continue to share the solutions created, by citizens all over the world, to face the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patient Innovation printing protective face shields to donate to healthcare workers

At Patient Innovation, we are using our 3D-printing expertise and joining the hundreds of people everywhere that started manufacturing equipment lacking in healthcare facilities. Since the Patient Innovation office was closed and the entire PI is working from home, Catarina Santos, our Platform Manager, took our 3D-printer home and is now printing protective visors to donate to healthcare facilities in the Lisbon Area.

The code files to print these face shields are open-source and available to download online.

Dr Filipe Araújo (Rheumatologist) using one of the protections shields during the outbreak.

Providing 3D printing kits to Portuguese-speaking African countries

Patient Innovation is partnering with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in the Partnerships for Development Program (“Programa Parcerias Para o Desenvolvimento”), to attribute 3D-printing kits to universities, technological facilities and research centers in Portuguese-speaking African countries. The aim of this project is to provide these institutions with the materials necessary to support their communities in overcoming the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Patient Innovation will be part of the jury responsible to select the institutions that will receive the kits and will then offer learning workshops and helpdesk services, to make sure that the institutions have the expertise necessary to make the most out of the equipment. Find out more about this project here.

Updates on the Patient Innovation Bootcamp

The 10 teams that will take part in the first edition of the Patient Innovation Bootcamp have been selected! With representatives from 11 different countries (Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, UK), the teams are:

On the 2nd of July, we hosted the official launch of the Patient Innovation Bootcamp, with the virtual Kick-off Meeting. We got to hear very inspiring stories from the 10 participating teams. We are very excited to be a part of the development process of the incredible solutions these teams created to improve the lives of patients all over the world.

Patient Innovation in the news

Patient Innovation was featured at the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera about user innovations created to fight this pandemic.

Pedro Oliveira and Helena Canhão, Project Leaders at Patient innovation, co-wrote several articles sharing their views on the current state of events during this pandemic:

Follow us

Visit us at www.patient-innovation.com.

For Covid-19 related solutions visit www.patient-innovation.com/condition/covid-19.

Help promote Patient Innovation and Forward this newsletter to your friends.