OT Researcher Joins 3D PPE Printing Effort at USC

When the notice of a personal protection equipment(PPE) shortage came out during the current epidemic, Sook-Lei Liew, PhD, OTR/L, started looking for ways to help. As Assistant Professor and Director of the Neural Plasticity and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory at USC, she and her team uses 3D printing to fabricate parts, such as those for their brain-computer interface project for stroke rehabilitation.

With her highly sought-after medical 3D printing experience, she joined over 150 faculty, students and alumni at USC, including fellow OTs, who are printing PPE designs approved for clinical use. They are part of a larger unified effort, along with several architecture firms and nonprofits, supplying parts to USC’s Keck Hospital who assembles, sterilizes, and distributes the finished PPEs.

“As an OT, I worked closely with our amazing heroic clinical OTs at USC Keck Hospital who would be using the PPE to see what they needed/preferred,” said Liew.

The PPE’s, such as N95 replacement masks and face shields, are utilized not only onsite at Keck, but also supplied throughout LA county, Cedars Sinai, local clinics, with an effort underway to ship to other places where they are needed such as New York.

“It is great to be a part of this massive effort,” said Liew, ”it is very exciting to see such a large community mobilize.”