COVID-19 Response Fund supports innovation solutions during pandemic

The hospital's foundation is raising money for Covid-19 response fund Dr. Kevin Spencer talked to us about what is being done with the emergency response team and the Dartmouth General.

HALIFAX — The Dartmouth General Hospital Foundation is raising money for a COVID-19 Response Fund to support the needs of staff and patients during the pandemic.

According to Dr. Kevin Spencer, an emergency department physician at the Dartmouth General Hospital and mechanical engineer, the COVID-19 Response Fund is focused on three specific areas.

“The foundation has been actively looking for ways to help and the three general areas include support of medical teams and patients, technology and tools for communication, and innovation solutions,” says Spencer.

Dr. Spencer says his engineering and industry colleagues are working day and night to create local solutions to a demand for personal protective equipment.

Dr. Spencer is president and co-founder of Ring Rescue Inc., a Class I medical device manufacturer. His team has joined forces with Spring Loaded Technology, an organization that develops and manufactures novel assistive devices that reduce pain and restore mobility, to produce face shields.

“With global supply and demand uncertainties, we believe that the best way to a stable solution is to create locally sourced equipment,” says Spencer.

“We first developed something called the Scotia Shield. We know that others are making disposable face shields and they are doing a good job, but the demand remains high and we wanted to make a face shield that is designed to be cleanable and therefore suitable for extended use. The foundation is very forward thinking and they directly helped get the production of this off the ground.”

The face shields can be assembled in just a few minutes, but Dr. Spencer says the real effort is getting the production up and running.

“As you can imagine, if you want to build thousands of something you need to find the materials, you need to get the manufacturing going, and that’s really where the upfront effort is,” says Spencer.

“We really want to tie into the local manufacturing, the local supply chain, to get people back to work and building these things.”

Dr. Spencer says his team is building a variety of equipment to help keep health-care providers and patients safe.

“We’re getting local communities involved and I think all these innovation efforts really tie in with what the foundation is doing,” says Spencer.

“People in our province want to support local innovations and support the fight.”