By GREGORY ZELLER //
Up your nose, Northwell Health – and we mean that in the best possible way.
The New Hyde Park-based health system and three partners – the University of South Florida, Tampa General Hospital and Massachusetts-based 3D-printing pioneer Formlabs – have earned highest recognition from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in the form of a prestigious Patents for Humanity award.
Separated into various categories, the semi-annual awards program recognizes innovators whose game-changing inventions answer global humanitarian challenges. Among the five winners in the 2022 Patents for Humanity: COVID-19 category is the Northwell/USF/Tampa General team, which created, tested and distributed a novel 3D-printed nasal swab at the height of the pandemic, with nasal swabs in short supply.
Q continuum: More than 100 million NP swabs have been 3D-printed around the globe, and counting.
The team later patented the process – and then shared the protected plans gratis with healthcare providers around the world, catching the attention of the USPTO, which announced the COVID-19 category winners in December.
The nasopharyngeal swab was created early in 2020 as disruptions to commercial supply lines and enormous demand caused a dire swab shortage.
Over the span of one week, experts from the partner institutions collaborated on a 3D-printed swab prototype created using Formlabs’ 3D printers and biocompatible materials. Prototypes were benchmarked against “standard flocked swabs” for “viral sample retention,” according to Northwell, and further tested for patient safety and comfort.
After exhibiting Q-tippish qualities, the NP swabs underwent a multisite, multistate clinical trial – dozens of hospitals in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida – and emerged successful.
Summer Decker: Southern hospital-ity.
Less interested in monetizing the invention than tackling the global swab shortage, the creators decided to provide the patented design files and clinical data – at no cost – to international hospitals, clinics and medical-device companies, with the express understanding that the NP swabs would be printed only for internal use.
The design has since been shared with healthcare providers and military organizations around the world – institutions in more than 60 countries, according to Northwell, with more than 100 million NP swabs produced to date.
Summer Decker, a professor in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and director of 3D Clinical Applications in USF Health’s Department of Radiology, said the mission objective was always to “help as many people as possible, as fast and safely as possible.”
“Only when you know what you are truly facing, in this case COVID-19, can you actually fight it,” Decker noted. “This swab was a critical, missing component of the global medical community’s ability to do just that.
“We assembled a team of experts in our fields and worked together toward a real-world solution,” she added. “We are very humbled by this recognition by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for our efforts and very grateful for this incredible opportunity to help … hospitals and medical centers throughout the world.”
Todd Goldstein: Being cooperative.
Todd Goldstein, an instructor at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research’s Institute of Molecular Medicine and director of Northwell Health’s 3D Design and Innovation division, said the teamwork displayed by the partner institutions was mandated by the relentless coronavirus pandemic.
“COVID-19 demanded innovation and collaboration, not only from those on the front lines but across industries,” Goldstein noted. “We hope that our 3D-printed nasal swab design helped alleviate burden during the height of the pandemic and showed what cooperation, even in times of crisis, can achieve.”
The team members are scheduled to be honored – alongside representatives of the National Institutes of Health, upstate Tarrytown-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, California-based Gilead Sciences and Ohio-based Caron Products & Services – at a ceremony in February, when the USPTO will officially bestow its 2022 Patents for Humanity: COVID-19 awards.
