Laboratories from the University Research Institute on Robotics and Information and Communications Technologies of the Universitat de València (IRTIC) have been working last weekend in manufacturing aerosol boxes, which are methacrylate boxes used to increase the protection of the health workers when realising intubations to patients that are seriously affected by Covid-19.

The first manufactured pieces have been already sent to Hospital de Llíria and Hospital Arnau de Vilanova (València) to be tested and to check their feasibility, while the manufacturing process of this new protective equipment continues at the facilities of the IRTC. The teaching staff of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry coordinated the production of the prototypes and the contact with the judging hospitals.

The manufactured equipment is a transparent methacrylate box that covers the head of the patient during the intubation. It is an additional protection for the health workers, that is also low-cost, easy to clean and to reuse. It has two holes on a side by which the doctors can introduce their hands to carry on the intubation process while protecting themselves from the patient's respiratory droplets.

It was the Taiwanese doctor Lai Hsien-yung who designed this device to help healthcare providers to overcome the shortages of supply arising from the coronavirus. In addition, its design is registered under a creative commons license, which makes possible to download it from the Internet for free, as long as it for non-commercial purposes.

_

This information has been prepared by the area of institutional communication of the Office of the Principal, with information provided by the coordinators of the project, who take part in the IRTIC and the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry.