UPDATED: Volunteers Fly 3D-Printed Face Shields to Unsung Hospital Heroes

For Immediate Release
Media Contact: Gavin Stern, gstern@aami.org, 703-647-2781
Updated: June 9, 2020

ARLINGTON, VA—COVID-19 hot spots across the nation are receiving 6,000 3D-printed face shields to protect the healthcare technology management (HTM) professionals responsible for managing and maintaining critical medical devices and equipment, such as ventilators.

Distributed by AAMI, a nonprofit that supports HTM professionals and medical device safety around the world, the first shipment of face shields is planned to arrive in Hagerstown, MD, via volunteer flight organization AeroBridge on Thursday, June 11, and media are invited to attend.

This desperately needed PPE—2,000 face shields—will then be distributed to several organizations in need of personal protective equipment (PPE), including Boston, MA; Hartford and New Haven, CT; Flint, MI; Bethesda, MD; and Chandler, AZ. Additional shipments of 3,500 are planned for New York City/Newark, NJ, and 500 to Lawrenceville, GA. HBP, Inc. has volunteered to donate fulfillment services.

“While HTM professionals often work behind the scenes to repair, maintain, and manage medical equipment and technology, their expertise is front and center during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s important that we protect the health of these essential workers by getting them the PPE that they need to do their jobs,” Danielle McGeary, vice president of HTM at AAMI, who arranged the donation with Robert Burroughs, senior vice president of education, and Bradley Schoener, vice president of innovation. “Thank you to everyone who has donated their time, expertise, and materials to make this effort possible.”

AAMI secured this donation of PPE from Response4Life, a nonprofit working to distribute medical equipment in times of need, and Maker Nexus a Sunnyvale, CA, based maker space that has rallied more than 600 makers that were idled by COVID-19 to produce PPE using their personal 3D printers, laser cutters, and sewing capabilities.

“I am honored and proud to be part of this effort to help HTM workers,” said Don Landwirth, a board member of Maker Nexus. “I have been amazed at the generosity of thousands of people to pay for, make and distribute our face shields. Everything is sent as a thank you to the dedicated HTM and healthcare workers around the US, and we hope these will help, in part, to keep them all a little safer.”

So far, their effort has delivered more than 42,000 face shields. Along with Salesforce.com, Response4Life has developed an efficient, low-friction supply chain to mobilize the maker community and small manufacturers to deliver PPE and supplies to where they’re needed.

Led by founder Rick Brennan, Response4Life, based in Boulder, CO, has also formed partnerships with other nonprofits to help move medical supplies around the county, including AeroBridge.org, which finds pilots to volunteer their planes, fuel, and time to fly medical supplies, and GetUsPPE.org, which rallies medical students to pick up supplies and deliver them to hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

HBP Inc., a leading provider of communications services in the mid-Atlantic region since 1903, and a longtime AAMI partner, received, packaged and shipped over 100 boxes of face shields to designated HTM associations across the country, who will distribute them to hospitals in greatest need.

AAMI (www.aami.org) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1967. It is a diverse community of more than 10,000 healthcare technology professionals united by one important mission—supporting the healthcare community in the development, management, and use of safe and effective health technology. AAMI is the primary source of consensus standards, both national and international, for the medical device industry, as well as practical information, support, and guidance for health technology and sterilization professionals.