About two weeks ago, Formlabs, the Somerville-based 3D printing startup, started getting flooded with requests.
Hospital systems across the world were beginning to see dire shortages of personal protective equipment—masks, surgical gowns, eye gear and more—along with ventilators, which are needed to sustain life in the most critical cases of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus. As news of those shortages spread, people and businesses began reaching out to Formlabs, asking if they might be able to close the gap by 3D printing some of those supplies.
So on Wednesday, March 18, the Formlabs team put out a Google Form asking for volunteers with access to 3D printers who would be willing to give their time and equipment. Formlabs also solicited responses from those "working on COVID-19-related projects" who needed access to 3D-printed parts, with the intention of connecting those two groups.
By Monday, more than 1,000 people had filled out the form. The startup has dubbed the initiative the "Formlabs Support Network for COVID-19 Response" and is working with hospital systems and government agencies to get 3D-printed swabs, adjustment straps for facial shields and respiratory mask adapters out into the world.
"I think the application that's furthest along, honestly, is testing kits," Gaurav Manchanda, Formlabs' director of health care, told BostInno on Monday morning. "As part of the testing kit, you need a swab to place in the nose to take a sample. Those swabs in particular are out of stock or in very limited supply around the world. We're working with at least three hospitals in the U.S. that are currently testing these in the lab, and they've received emergency [institutional review board] approvals and other necessary approvals. We think it's only a matter of hours, or one or two days, until we have the first patients actually using those 3D-printed swabs."
Manchanda estimates that the volunteer network will be able to print and ship tens of thousands of equipment components over the next few weeks.
Formlabs is not printing all of the components itself, nor are all the volunteers in its network using Formlabs printers. Anyone with a 3D printer can sign up. Manchanda said the startup is collaborating with large manufacturers across industries, government agencies and its own competitors in the 3D printing industry.
"This is a much bigger problem than any one manufacturer, let alone 3D printer manufacturer, can handle on their own," Manchanda said. "We want to refer people to the right technology, whether it's Formlabs or not."
Currently, Formlabs is in early conversations with the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office as part of its engagement with local health systems.
To develop designs that volunteers can use to 3D print the equipment, Formlabs is working with new clinical partners. In some cases, someone within a hospital system will create a blueprint and send it to Formlabs to tweak; in others, a partner will send a request for a specific design, and Formlabs employees will develop it.
Health care systems will ultimately be responsible for quality control. Formlabs has repeatedly emphasized that it is not a medical device manufacturer and cannot verify, validate or warrant any of the products that come out of this initiative.
"There are a lot of great ideas and well-intentioned people out there, and it's really important to make sure that those ideas convert into clinical testing and validation by a hospital or a health system, as well as appropriate regulatory bodies, to be most impactful," Manchanda said. "We just want to make sure we're working hand in hand with with the clinical community and the regulatory agencies to do no harm and to be most helpful."
"This is not the time to move fast and break things," he added. "Many things are already broken, unfortunately."
