Development and efficacy testing of a portable negative pressure enclosure for airborne infection containment.

Objectives: To overcome the shortage of personal protective equipment and airborne infection isolation rooms (AIIRs) in the COVID-19 pandemic, a collaborative team of research engineers and clinical physicians worked to build a novel negative pressure environment in the hopes of improving healthcare worker and patient safety. The team then sought to test the device's efficacy in generating and maintaining negative pressure. The goal proved prescient as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later recommended that all barrier devices use negative pressure.

Design and in-vitro testing of a portable patient isolation chamber for bedside aerosol containment and filtration.

The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has imposed a multitude of complications on healthcare facilities. Healthcare professionals had to develop creative solutions to deal with resource shortages and isolation spaces when caring for COVID positive patients. Among many other solutions, facilities have utilized engineering strategies to mitigate the spread of viral contamination within the hospital environment.