Speaker
Description
For a lot of us, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant dialing back, hunkering down, and holding off until things get back to normal. For some, though, it has meant ramping up and going the extra mile to get things back to normal. This presentation will attempt to tell a story that starts with a small group of students from Lakehead University and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine that aimed to redistribute and manufacture PPE as a STOPGAP solution to fill shortages in northern Ontario. The initiative grew into a network of doctors, students, professors, staff, and industrial partners working towards keeping people safe- now and into the future. What we discovered is not, in our opinion, as important as how we discovered it, and how a group of passionate people put their lives on hold to develop 3D printed face masks, make test equipment from aquarium parts and hot glue, meet doctors from SickKids hospital on the side of the highway to exchange filters, and partner with business people willing to risk everything to bring Ontario the ability to control its own supply of PPE. We are still working to overcome this challenge, and we hope the story of what we did will inspire others to find creative ways to overcome similar obstacles that may face us in the future.
