UAB Briefs: Making PPE, legal camp, honor for doctor

In this weekly online feature, we keep track of interesting people and events on campus at The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

We also provide updates regarding UAB’s efforts to cope with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

To read the school’s COVID-19 updates and find health information, go to uab.edu/coronavirus.

Let us know about people, events and programs on campus that deserve a mention in UAB Briefs. Email jchambers@starnespublishing.com.

MAKING PPE

Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been a major concern for hospitals and healthcare professionals in the United States since the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic early this year.

But Dr. Nitin Arora, an assistant professor in the UAB Division of Neonatology, stepped in early on to begin looking for alternative PPE options, according to UAB Media Relations.

“I began looking for reusable PPE solutions in case it became difficult to find traditional PPE,” he said in a news release.

During his search, Arora came across the Pneumask, a full-face respirator made from a scuba mask and a 3D-printed filter.

The Pneumask was invented by Manu Prakash of Stanford University and had been submitted for FDA approval.

Arora reached out to Prakash, who agreed to let Arora use the design for the Pneumask to create masks for healthcare providers at UAB

Arora also began to search for local 3D printers to help create the adapter that connects the medical-grade filter that modifies the scuba masks.

He contacted Justin Koch, director of the UAB School of Engineering undergraduate design lab, as well as other 3D printers in the Birmingham area. 

Koch connected Arora with Matthew Rosser, director of the Center for Manufacturing Support at Jacksonville State University.

“The original Pneumask that Stanford submitted to the FDA was only for one type of scuba mask,” Arora said. “Matt and I decided to work together to design solutions for other types of scuba masks by modifying the design created by Manu’s lab.”

After securing funds from the UAB Reusable PPE Solutions Taskforce to purchase various types of scuba masks, they worked to create 3D-printed pieces that fit them. 

Once the masks had been assembled, Arora presented the masks to the UAB Coronavirus Command Center, and he and other health care providers at UAB tested the masks. 

The team has made more than more than 400 Pneumasks to date.

Arora has also secured 700 completed Pneumasks from the Pneumask team and their philanthropic partners.

They will be sent to UAB and distributed in the region as the need arises.

BUDDING ATTORNEYS

High school students with an interest in legal careers can take part in an online camp at UAB this summer in which they can reimagine actual U.S. Supreme Court cases and participate in mock mediation and mock trials.

The Journey to Attorney camp, presented by the UAB Department of Criminal Justice, will be held from July 12-18.

Participants will do the following:

• Work one-on-one with practicing attorneys, professors and trial experts.
• Learn the essentials to prepare for pre-law studies and law school.
• Improve writing, reasoning and presentation skills for college admission.
• Further develop competencies in critical thinking and writing to be understood and improve scholarship opportunities.
• Meet other students interested in the law. 

Registration is limited to the first 35 participants.  

For more information, contact Brandon Blankenship at blbj@uab.edu.

HONOR FOR ‘HUMANE CARE’

Dr. Rodney Tucker — a palliative care physician at UAB — has been honored for his work and the care he has provided to patients nearing the end of their lives.

The director of the UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, Tucker recently received the 2020 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award. 

Tucker received the Senior Physician Award for his contributions in medical practice, teaching, research and community engagement.  

This award is one of the top honors for physicians practicing palliative care in the United States. 

“This award really is a recognition of the entire field and all of the individuals that make up a full interprofessional team,” Tucker said. “The family that funds this program recognizes this field as crucial to the humane care of patients and families, so it is reaffirming to physicians who do this work. This is but one example of the programs throughout the country that highlight the importance and place for this growing specialty of medicine.”  

The Cunniff-Dixon Foundation seeks to enrich the relationship of doctors and patients who are near the end of life.

The Hastings Center is a bioethics research institute that has done groundbreaking work on end-of-life decision-making.