465 CPAP snorkel masks
Date: March 2020
Designed by: Isinnova
Credit: isinnova / scientific american
When COVID-19 was ravaging Italian hospitals early in the crisis, the firm Isinnova designed 3-D printed pieces that could connect a snorkeling mask to a noninvasive ventilator. The design helped to relieve a shortage of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure masks, or CPAP masks, and allows patients to be "proned" on their stomachs due to the valve's placement at the top of the mask. Specialists have argued that patients with COVID-19 should be proned early in their treatment, which is not possible when a patient is intubated.
Isinnova collaborated with Decathlon, a French sporting goods retailer, to obtain a 3-D CAD design for snorkeling masks in order to determine what modifications could be made to turn it into an emergency CPAP mask. The project took three days to complete, with the prototype was sucessfuly tested inside the Chiari Hospital for emergency use. The project was also picked up internationally by engineers and clinicians to create noninvasive ventilation masks. Isinnova made their project available to the public, and offer on their website a document to be signed by the patient for the use of the device in an emergency situation; video instructions on preparing the emergency mask once all the components are obtained; and .stl, .dwg and .step files for 3D printing parts.
A V&A/RCA HISTORY OF DESIGN MA PROJECT