Support for medical devices and equipment combating COVID-19

Organizations and groups from many industries are finding creative ways to source and manufacture medical equipment most critical to combating this global pandemic.

By Jeff Schnabel June 10, 2020

COVID-19 has impacted the world in more ways than one, with the shortage of many medical supplies and devices at the forefront of these challenges. The manufacturing of medical equipment including ventilators, respirators, test equipment, imaging systems, and more has seen companies, organizations, makers and volunteers from many industries finding creative ways to source and build these devices most critical to combating this global pandemic.

From the maker community to various volunteer teams, there have been countless examples of the initiatives and coordinated efforts of these groups to put their varying skills and expertise toward good use. For example, HelpWithCovid.com was created by a team from across the world as a clearinghouse for COVID-19-related projects and volunteers looking to help. In another case, an open-source COVID-19 medical supplies group on Facebook was formed to share promising open-source designs for key supplies and ideas on how to work together, find collaborations and share inspiring stories about response efforts to the global COVID-19 pandemic. An Arduino COVID-19 forum and a Hackaday open-source ventilator challenge are a few more of the many examples of the global manufacturing community coming together to support critical medical applications.

In the electronics industry, the major distributors are doing their part to keep important electronic components in stock and readily available for immediate shipment worldwide for medical devices.

Logistics companies like DHL, FedEx, and UPS also are playing an important role in continually working with manufacturers and distributors to meet crucial shipment deadlines and deliver products to those producing lifesaving medical equipment.

At CUI Devices, we’re dedicating our resources to prioritize orders, provide technical support and address any other urgent needs of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), makers and volunteer groups working to combat COVID-19. We have been working to minimize customer disruptions in every way possible including:

  • Daily monitoring of local and national regulations
  • Daily contact with manufacturing facilities
  • Moving open orders to priority shipping to reduce transit times, and
  • Continued transparency on the status of orders and lead times.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented challenges never before seen in the modern era of medicine. In the electronics industry, manufacturers, distributors, and logistics companies are actively working to keep supply chains up and running, in order to best support the OEMs, makers, and other groups developing medical devices used to combat the disease. However, if not for the heroic efforts of the frontline medical teams and workers worldwide, none of these efforts to limit the impact of COVID-19 would be worthwhile. They deserve our thanks.

Jeff Schnabel is president of CUI Devices. Edited by Chris Vavra, associate editor, Control Engineering, CFE Media and Technology, cvavra@cfemedia.com.


Author Bio: Jeff Schnabel is president of CUI Devices.