Medical Devices and Treatments to Fight the Virus

By Christie Peng and Shalini Ballur

Lisa Chan, a physics graduate from the City College of New York, a researcher, an instructor, and a president of her college’s physics club, helps produce medical devices against the Covid-19 virus. Chan is a role model in the STEM field and works to inspire women to pursue careers in science and technology. She fights against gender discrimination in jobs related to STEM in the workplace by actively giving back to her community from tutoring students all the way to researching at a well-renowned labratory. Chan works at 3D Bio Therapeutics, a bioprinting company that develops technology to treat diseases and medical conditions. This is vital considering that patients rely on these medical devices when the virus gets worse.

Last week our team asked her a few questions through a Zoom Q&A hosted by the STEM Garden. We asked her about the kind of technology she develops. Chan specifically helps to combat the pandemic by producing respirators and ventilators for patients. When asked if she feels any sort of pressure, she responds by bringing up the gender problem in STEM and how she wants to give back to the community and prove that women do have a place in this field. Our final question could not be answered due to company confidentiality: “What are some proposed methods of technology you would like to use to prevent the spread of the virus?” However, she still concludes by suggesting the best way to prevent the virus is by wearing a mask, social distancing, and washing your hands.

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, respirators and ventilators are crucial to help the patient breathe when the virus gets progressively worse. Ventilators, for example, assist the lungs to inhale and exhale. The Covid-19 disease directly infects the lungs, so the patient’s ability to breathe decreases. The ventilator pumps oxygen into the lungs which is called oxygenation while removing carbon dioxide is called ventilation. The two types of ventilators are called bag valve mask and modern mechanical ventilator. The overall difference between these two is that the BVM is used for short term air supply while the modern mechanical ventilator is for long term use and is much more complex. The US has a shortage of these devices where it has come to the point where patients have to share a ventilator. They are not cheap as one costs approximately 50,000 dollars, so companies are working on alternative designs that are just as effective but cheaper.

Right now, there are 19 possible treatments for the coronavirus. There is no cure yet, but there are several promising treatments that are currently undergoing trials, and a few are granted emergency use authorization by the FDA. Possible treatments are sorted into five categories: Widely Used, Promising Evidence, Tentative or Mixed Evidence, Not Promising, and Pseudoscience or Fraud. Widely Used treatments have been used by doctors and nurses to treat sick patients. Promising Evidence treatments show improvements in recovery, but more research is needed. Tentative and Mixed Evidence Treatments show success in animals or cells, but have yet to be tested on humans. These treatments may also have mixed results in different trials. Not Promising treatments didn’t work in its early stages. Pseudoscience or Fraud evidence are not reliable treatments because they cannot cure the virus and are actually dangerous instead.

There are two Widely Used treatments and two Promising Evidence treatments. The two Widely Used treatments are Prone positioning and Ventilators and other respiratory support devices. Prone positioning is a type of maneuver, in which Covid-19 patients are flipped on their bellies to open up their lungs. This maneuver is an alternative to using ventilators and the benefits continue to be tested. Ventilators and other respiratory support devices help breathing in Covid-19 patients through an extra supply of oxygen supported by an oxygen machine or ventilator. These support systems are critical to patients in severe respiratory distress as they are reported to be lifesaving by many doctors.

The Promising Evidence treatments include Remdesivir and Dexamethasone. Remdesivir is a drug produced by Gilead Sciences that showed success in preliminary trials by reducing the recovery time of people hospitalized with Covid-19 from 15 to 11 days. Remdesivir has been the first drug to get emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Another solution that was used to treat Covid-19 patients is a steroid named Dexamethasone. Dexamethasone was the first drug proven to reduce Covid-19 deaths for patients on ventilators and patients on oxygen. This treatment had been previously used by doctors to heal allergies, asthma and inflammation. As of right now, these are the only solutions to successfully treat Covid-19 patients.

Citations

Corum, Jonathan, et al. “Coronavirus Drug and Treatment Tracker.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 16 July 2020, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/science/coronavirus-drugs-treatments.html.

Pathak, Neha. “Ventilators for Coronavirus: What Are They, How It Works & When To Use Them.” WebMD, WebMD, 26 Mar. 2020, www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-ventilators.