借助蛋糕项圈材料，三孔打孔，剪贴簿纸修剪器以及保护医疗保健前线的驱动力，来自德克萨斯大学健康科学中心的一支团队（UTHealth) has designed a face shield that can be used by thousands of providers in the Texas Medical Center.

在过去的一周中，成千上万的注射式头饰开始到达Uthealth，以及将用于创建医疗质量的面部盾牌的聚合物表。该货物是仅几周的反复试验的高潮，以为医疗保健提供者创建低成本，高功能的个人保护设备（PPE）Harris Health Lyndon B. Johnson（LBJ）医院,纪念赫尔曼,UT Physicians，以及整个休斯顿地区的其他医疗机构。

“I am so grateful that we are able to do something to protect ourselves and our colleagues,” said乔治·W·威廉姆斯二世，医学博士，UTHealth McGovern医学院麻醉学副教授，Harris Health LBJ的手术重症监护病房的医疗联合导演。“我们不必担心自己的健康。这使我们能够专注于患者，只是成为最好的医疗保健提供者。”

为了响应全球PPE的短缺以及为休斯敦的更多Covid-19案件做准备，威廉姆斯于3月27日开始为与病毒作战的人设计面部装甲。他认为3D打印可能是答案。医学博士芭芭拉·斯托尔（Barbara Stoll）Uthealth的McGovern医学院,迈克尔·布莱克本博士执行副主席dent and chief academic officer at UTHealth, quickly put Williams in contact with大卫·沃尔克（David Volk）博士, associate professor in the medical school’sCenter for Translational Cancer Research。

Volk was one step ahead of Williams, vice chair and division chief of critical care medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology. He had already downloaded a free template to make the headpiece for the face shield. Now all he had to do fire up one of the 3D printers made available through The University of Texas System’s Science and Technology Acquisition and Retention (STARs) program.

“Normally I print medical devices, not PPE prototypes, but I was highly motivated to do my part to protect our physicians and nurses who are caring for patients who may have COVID-19,” Volk said. “Health care providers put on a brave face, but this is scary. We need to protect them.”

In the days ahead, Volk would print a headpiece. Williams would drive by UTHealth’s Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building to pick up the prototype, then he would have colleagues at Harris Health LBJ try it out.

For the initial prototypes, the face shield itself was made of clear transparencies Williams found in his office. He would puncture the transparency using a three-hole punch, then secure it to the headpiece Volk had printed.

Brijesh “Billy” S. Gill, MD, and Max Skibber, a research assistant who works in Gill’s McGovern Medical School lab developing medical devices, quickly joined Williams and Volk in their efforts to design a protective face shield.

斯基布尔（Skibber）于今年秋天开始在麦戈文医学院（McGovern Medical School）担任学生的第一年，他的生物工程背景工作。他应用了威廉姆斯和其他医疗保健提供者的反馈，以优化快速注射成型的设计，以便可以迅速制造面部盾牌。

Early designs held the transparency too close to the face. It provided exceptional protection, but it didn’t allow adequate space for those with glasses or large noses. The transparency fogged up quickly, and produced a bothersome glare. By widening the headpiece, Skibber was able to bring the plastic shield farther away from the face, allowing for both functionality and comfort – a simple, elegant solution.

接下来，团队需要更好地替代透明度。用于蛋糕项圈的材料，在交付过程中保护蛋糕的塑料板似乎是最好的选择。

Skibber suggested they use a scrapbooking paper trimmer to easily and evenly cut the cake collars into face shields. He stood in line at a craft store, social distancing and patiently waiting his turn to buy a trimmer that is designed to preserve memories and would now be helping to preserve the health and safety of health care providers.

“I find a lot of inspiration in what Dr. Williams, Dr. Gill, and Dr. Volk are doing,” Skibber said. “This experience will stick with me as I begin medical school and throughout my career.”

While Williams collected data from those wearing the face shields, Volk and Skibber continued to make adjustments. Dustan Brennan, assistant director ofMedical School Information Technology (MSIT)用于创新，项目和研究，他的团队合作完成了最终设计。beplay苹果手机能用吗然后，他的团队和Nujoud Merancy是NASA Johnson太空中心勘探任务计划办公室的负责人Nujoud Merancy，他们使用其3-D打印机制作足够的头饰来保护数百个前线提供商，直到可以大量生产PPE部分。

Meanwhile,protolabsgot on board to create up to 20,000 injection-molded headpieces. The cake collar material that the team purchased online will only make about 4,000 shields.Piedmont Plasticsfound an additional supply of high-grade polymer sheeting that will produce 40,000 shields for Houston health care providers.

哈里斯卫生系统运营副总裁克里斯·奥基齐（Chris Okezie）表示：“我们很高兴为哈里斯卫生系统供应链团队与Uthealth合作就此开发而有机会。该产品将极大地增强我们在这个充满挑战和困难时期保护临床人员的能力，我们最欣赏成为这项鼓舞人心的创新的受益者。”

Stoll, a champion of this initiative, added, “If there was ever a silver lining to COVID-19, it is seeing people working together for the public good. That’s what this is all about – coming together to protect those on the front lines so we provide the very best care to our patients.”