ENDOSIM LIMITS COVID-19 SPREAD WITH AEROSOL BARRIER

Jake Suvalskas uses the Aerosol Barries to work on a patient

As COVID concerns mounted, EndoSIM Founder and CEO Dr. Kai Matthes faced a challenging situation. Based in Bolton, EndoSIM usually creates medical supplies for doctors-in-training, offering facsimile organs to simulate genuine surgical procedures. “Back in March and April, we had all our courses canceled because of COVID,” Dr. Matthes said. “Our training and simulation models are highly dependent upon in-person meetings, so at that point we looked at other revenue avenues.”

EndoSIM’s goal is to create training situations where novice surgeons can practice without potentially harming patients; the company even offers an in-person training center to facilitate. In addition to leading EndoSIM, Dr. Matthes is a practicing physician. During this trying moment for his company, Dr. Matthes drew from his medical career to brainstorm new directions. Working with Jake Suvalskas, EndoSIM’s lead engineer, the pair eventually came to the Aerosol Barrier, an intubation box designed to allow nurses and physicians to access patients while limiting risk of COVID-19 spread. Inexpensive, plastic, and reusable, the see-through barrier has four sealed arm ports for medical professionals to access their patients for endoscopy and intubation. The box surrounds patients from above their head to the upper chest. Creating a negative pressure zone around the patient with a vacuum, the box significantly reduces COVID-19 transmission risk.

Dr. Matthes improved upon existing technology in designing the Aerosol Barrier; another Dr. Hoffman from the University of Iowa had designed a similar device that didn’t seal the ports. “A group looked at his design and found that when you don’t seal the ports, the air funnels right into the doctors’ faces and actually increases the transmission risk,” Matthes said. EndoSIM’s design includes sealed ports.

Meanwhile, EndoSIM has additional COVID products in the works. Dr. Matthes mentioned ongoing product development for a new medical training program using augmented reality. The new system would allow medical professionals to train from remote locations. At the same time,
EndoSIM has aggressively marketed the pandemic-related products the company already produces. Dr. Matthes hopes that through marketing, social media, and EndoSIM’s many connections to professionals in the medical device industry, the Aerosol Barrier can break into the medical mainstream.

FLEXCON COMPANY, A RAPID RESPONDER TO PANDEMIC NEEDS

FLEXcon’s pivot to face shield production began as a collaboration with local hospitals in need of PPE to protect employees. Although the company had no experience manufacturing face shields, the FLEXcon team developed a new, disposable face shield in just 36 hours. Following that, the company has developed reusable hoods to test the fit of face masks, ensuring that health professionals are not at risk.

FLEXcon is a leading manufacturer of pressure-sensitive films used for labels and graphics. When the pandemic began, staff responded, asking “what problems are occurring? What materials do we have? How can we design solutions,” explains FLEXcon Business Discovery and Technology Cell Manager, Julie Fehlmann.

FLEXcon’s PPE production initiatives have been supported by FLEXcon’s deep bench of technical problem solvers. For years, FLEXcon has fine-tuned its internal development processes, seemingly in preparation for this time. According to Fehlmann, aasking each and every employee to be a problem solver has been the heart of the transformation.

FLEXcon has been a key employer in Spencer for over 65 years. The company has managed to keep its entire staff working since the pandemic hit. FLEXcon has also donated some 20,000 face shields and 200 test hoods to local institutions throughout the recent pandemic months Using surplus materials from its factory, FLEXcon has also created and donated 1,000 “Creativity Kits” of glittery, glowing materials for kids to use in crafts projects. For Fehlmann, “getting involved has been extremely rewarding because you’re getting to see that direct impact and helping people. We’re in the middle of a pandemic and
everybody’s struggling, so any way we can make everyone’s life a little bit easier in this time is really great for us.”

AS STORES BEGAN SHUTTING, IPAC BEGAN CUTTING

Industrial Polymers and Chemicals is a 50 employee company that specializes in making fiberglass reinforcement products for abrasives. Today they are making personal protective equipment to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Early in the pandemic, IPAC Chief Technical Officer Thomas Kennedy fielded a call on behalf of a leading Boston hospital “asking for some help”. Kennedy and CEO Susan Dacey quickly determined they could adapt IPAC’s cutting capabilities to help fill the need for hospital gowns. Soon the IPAC staff “were cutting things to beat the band,” Kennedy said. “We had four shifts running.”

Kennedy has pushed IPAC full steam ahead into the gown industry. They make over 40,000 gowns a week, with plans to double their capacity with a new cutting machine. The gowns, plus IPAC’s contracts with customers who supply body armor, allowed the company to remain fully operational throughout the pandemic. We tell our employees “not only is this a wonderful opportunity for us to get into a new area, but we’re saving lives by doing this work as well.”

IPAC has designs to expand into the mask business. The company has developed an innovative mask style made from a unique material. Planning to do all assembly in-house, IPAC has filed a provisional patent for their mask process and design. IPAC’s masks will be made primarily for schoolchildren and manufacturing personnel. “How do you tell a 5-year-old or a 10-year-old to wear a mask all day,” Kennedy asks about reusable face covering products. The product will be biodegradable, environmentally safe, and most importantly, low cost enough for school districts to purchase for their students.

In the end, Kennedy can only tout the importance of US-based industry. He credits the Dacey family for keeping the company in Worcester, fending off offers to move overseas. But the job isn’t easy. “IPAC does blood and guts manufacturing. The US needs to realize that it needs to add to its manufacturing base. Without that base, we can’t respond to things. Want PPE? Well, you’ll have to wait two months for it to ship from overseas.”

NORTHEAST BIOMEDICAL’S JUBILANT COMPANY CULTURE ADDS ELATION TO ISOLATION

For staff at Northeast Biomedical, fun is both a modus operandi and a design philosophy. In response to a fruit-fly infestation, a team at Northeast designed and 3D printed an apparatus to capture the insects. On the other hand, Northeast’s pro-insect ‘Bee Team” is always thinking of ways to make bee-related products for a nearby apiary.

Northeast Biomedical’s unique personal barrier design is also fun. “What can a fun barrier look like?” asked Elizabeth Nelson, head of R&D at Northeast. “It’s one that you can doodle on, or can use to safely scribble a game of tic tac toe with a friend.” Northeast Biomedical makes its barriers from six translucent tiles, magnetically connected to each other to form a customizable shape. The barriers collapse into spaceconserving stack, and each piece is dish-washable. Those looking to personalize their barriers can do so with dry-erase markers.

In normal times, Northeast Biomedical’s core business helps companies ‘create medical devices to help enhance lives.’ The company offers product design and development services to companies making electromechanical instruments, catheters, robotics, and more.

In the supply-strapped early days of the American COVID-19 pandemic, Northeast’s leaders asked all employees to invent solutions. Despite the urgency of the crisis and the direct impact of COVID-19 on Northeast’s staff, the team has held on to its fun culture. Nelson says it’s more important than ever to be able to channel her inner child. She looks forward to looking back on this time, confident that her work on products like fun barriers will remind her that it “wasn’t as bad as I was afraid it could be.”

PHILLIPS ENTERPRISES ENTERS THE CORONA FIGHT WITH PPE BARRIERS

A Phillips employee fabricates a PPE barrier

Phillips Enterprises designs custom retail display solutions, for a wide range of products, including candles, cosmetics, art supplies, fragrances, toys, and electronics. The COVID-19 pandemic has kept
many customers from visiting retail stores and as a result, has reduced the demand for product displays. According to Leeanne Herman, the company’s Director of Sales, “we needed to pivot to generate sales.”

Phillips’ management explored the company’s capabilities to make PPE. After considering other products like masks and face shields, the team agreed to focus on PPE barriers. Protective barriers are a good fit for Phillips, a company experienced in acrylic cutting. Herman explained that once the design standards were in place, Phillips planned to “generate revenue through economies of scale.”

But as the company entered the marketplace, Phillips realized that a one-size-fits-all solution did not fit in many circumstances. The team also realized that many of their customers didn’t themselves know the proper barrier solutions for their unique spaces. Herman said that now, “people turn to us because they don’t know what they need, and we’ll take the time to talk through the scenario and its solution. So we’ve positioned ourselves as industry leaders by providing a customer-focused service, listening to our customers needs, and partnering with them to provide them with the best solution to reopening their business or school.”

The Phillips sales team provides direct on-site consultation to each customer to understand their protective barrier needs, determining the best solution for their space, and taking required measurements and details needed to fit the location. These details are brought back to create a quotation and engineering design. At this point, Phillips manufactures the barriers, and finally, the company sends a team to deliver and install the product for the customers. For smaller orders, the entire process takes only a week.

Herman is pleased with Phillips’ new work. “Providing these physical barriers gives me a sense of accomplishment because I’m fighting the disease’s spread, and that’s what it’s all about.”

ORCHARD VALLEY HEATING AND COOLING BRINGS AIR FILTRATION TO THE PEOPLE WITH A PORTABLE AIR FILTER

Jim and Matt Patterson with a Future Air Filter

Orchard Valley Heating and Cooling of Southampton is adapting its business model in response to COVID-19. Although Orchard Valley is well known as an installer of heating and cooling systems, its COVID adaptation includes a brand new, patent- pending air filter.

As coronavirus panic swept the nation earlier this year, owner Jim Patterson saw people becoming more concerned about indoor air quality than ever before— including hospital care providers like his wife, who risked becoming infected with COVID-19 during every work shift
In response to these concerns, Patterson has invented the “Future” air filter. His units are small and portable, and they can easily be installed to provide high quality air filtration—even to the older ductless buildings common in Massachusetts and across New England.

The filter uses ionization to kill COVID-19 and other viruses. Ions, or charged air particles, rip holes in airborne particles, destroying COVID-19, mold spores, and bacteria. Most importantly, Patterson explains, the ions spread out from the purifier and coat surfaces in the filtered area, creating larger virus- free zones. This spreading effect gives Future air filters a major advantage over other purification technologies.

Patterson designed his product with high-contact industries in mind. “During the day, high-contact surfaces become recontaminated,” said Patterson. “I’ve got clients trying to figure out how they’re going to reopen, say, a gym, where people are touching the barbells and the machines. You can sanitize at night, but as soon as the next crowd of people comes in, that cleaning fades.” Patterson’s technology provides a 24-7 sanitizing solution.

Patterson constructed his first air purifier prototype using leftover computer server cabinets and built nearly two dozen additional prototypes before launching. The first batch of Future filters sold out rapidly, and Orchard Valley is now accepting pre-orders for its second production run. Patterson’s project has been so successful that Orchard Valley has added two new sales positions to meet increased demand, and the local sheet metal company that produces the cabinets for the Future purifiers has also added jobs.

So far, Orchard Valley has sold to local schools, gyms, municipalities, medical offices, pottery studios, hair salons, and private residences. Patterson also donated units to local fire departments and other nonprofits.

RADIO ROBOTS SEEKS TO BUILD A BETTER HEALTHCARE SCHEDULER

When Steve Stutman surveys the American coronavirus response, he sees inefficiency in scheduling for testing and vaccination. In Massachusetts, he’s heard of five-hour wait times and people seeking tests being turned away. “There are a lot of resources in our country, but they’re not necessarily matched with need,” he explains. Stutman points to the new internet medical scheduling portals as an example—”the portals often just tell people to call the office,” he says. “If I can make an appointment to change my car tires over the phone in one step, why can’t scheduling a COVID test be just as easy?”

Stutman is building a system to properly match COVID resources to COVID needs. Using more advanced systems than the medical field’s current standard, Stutman plans to create a scheduling platform that will lower test wait times, improve the ease of creating appointments, and reduce costs for both medical providers and consumers.

Creating a new test scheduling application from
the bottom up is no small task. Stutman is supported by teammates at his Sudbury-based company, Radio Robots, which, according toStutman, employs “highly experienced technologists—hardware engineers and software guys.” The group prides itself on being nimble, having worked on projects ranging from the environmental sensors to teleoperated Segways.

But no matter which projects Radio Robots takes on, Stutman cares deeply that the final product helps society. “I find that questioning whether my products will help repair the world is a useful idea,” he says.
As for Radio Robots’ ability to improve and streamline testing processes during and after the coronavirus pandemic, Stutman is confident that his product will be successful. “There are a number of things that can be done in healthcare that are conceptually quite simple, like increasing efficiencies and reducing costs. So that’s what we’re going to focus on.”

CUSTOMIZABLE DEVICE HELPS SCHOOLS IMPROVE STUDENT HEALTH AND INDOOR AIR QUALITY AMIDST COVID-19 PANDEMIC

CEO Will Hargett installing one of the sensors

While it may seem mundane, the quality of the indoor air we breathe affects our health now more than ever as we navigate how to bring people back together during the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools, in particular, remain challenged in providing safe indoor air to students and often fly blind as to where to focus their limited resources to address this issue – until now.

Zeptive’s innovative air health monitoring system offers schools a tangible way to continuously examine and improve their ventilation systems. It measures key indicators of good ventilation, like carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and air particle filtration, in each room and provides real-time metrics to users. Quality ventilation has many benefits – it decreases the risk of transmitting airborne viruses like COVID-19 and has been shown to improve student performance and attendance.

“Schools are investing a lot of money to upgrade their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, and yet they do not have a way to measure their effectiveness,” says Will Hargett, Zeptive’s chief executive officer. “During this time, we know many schools feel like they are working in the dark, trying to figure out what to do next. That is why we created this product to essentially serve as their flashlight.”
Zeptive is an IoT sensing business focused on safety, security and public health sensing applications. Its air health monitoring system uses advanced sensors that can be moved from room to room to identify areas of concern with ventilation. Before COVID-19 swept the U.S., Zeptive focused exclusively on using these sensors to detect when students were vaping nicotine or marijuana in schools.

The sensor already had a particle counter to look for droplets in the air, so the particle counter was easily modified to measure efficiency of filtration in school ventilation systems. Zeptive then added a carbon dioxide sensor to use as a measure of how well the ventilation system works. Zeptive’s air health monitoring system checks which areas of buildings have acceptable air filtration, and which do not. Cindy Bistany, chief technology officer said, “We made our sensor customizable and able to detect many things to meet our customers’ changing concerns. Our main mission now is to give people an easy-to-use tool to monitor airflow and filtration.”

While Zeptive’s sensors do not specifically detect COVID-19 in the air, the company’s latest product does offer a measurable link between air quality, filtration, and the risks posed to public health. “We have reached a tipping point of public health awareness where people are not going to go back to thinking that a stuffy room is meaningless,” says Bistany. “Whether it is the flu, or the common cold, or some future serious disease beyond COVID-19, having an awareness of air quality and safety in these spaces is paramount.”