A thorny issue shaping the current public health crisis is broad access to COVID-19 testing. If we could conduct wide-scale testing, we would be able to pinpoint the carriers and contain the spread of the infection. Yet testing has not been keeping pace with the growing contagion. Healthcare providers still face a dire shortage of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), leaving clinicians on the front lines vulnerable to exposure.
To tackle this challenge, we participated in a rapid design competition organized by the Regional Partnering Center in Tucson, Arizona. Collaborating with a multidisciplinary team ranging from clinicians and engineers to materials scientists invited by the University of Arizona, we developed a unique design concept: a testing booth that allows healthcare workers to administer tests without using PPE or being exposed.