A Personal Respirator for Healthcare Professionals Treating COVID-19 (PeRSo)

University Hospital Southampton has become the first healthcare provider in the country to widely introduce a pioneering protective respirator hood for staff treating patients with coronavirus (COVID-19).

The equipment, designed by engineers at the University of Southampton and researchers at the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre in collaboration with clinicians at UHS, was developed into a prototype in just a week, tested on wards and manufactured at scale in less than a month.

Known as PeRSo, it consists of a fabric hood which covers the wearer's head and a plastic visor to protect their face.

It delivers clean air through a High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter with belt-mounted fan pack, can be worn continuously for eight to nine hours and is reusable after appropriate cleaning.

Frontline healthcare staff at UHS tested the prototypes on the wards last month and the concept has been made open-source so it is available to be manufactured around the world.

For more information about this project see - https://www.uhs.nhs.uk/AboutTheTrust/Newsandpublications/Latestnews/2020/April/Hospital-trust-becomes-first-to-introduce-pioneering-respirator-hoods-for-staff-treating-coronavirus-patients.aspx

and

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/publicpolicy/support-for-policymakers/policy-projects/perso.page