National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
New York Embroidery Studio and PPE
The National Strategy for a Resilient Public Health Supply Chain lays out the U.S. government's vision to protect the health and security of Americans by ensuring a supply chain for personal protective equipment (PPE) and technology (PPT), medical devices, medicines, and other public health supplies that is resilient against disruptions from pandemics and other biological threats. Additional forethought and collaboration amongst policy makers, manufacturers, and users is needed to make PPE and PPT innovation, standardization, stockpiling, and use more resilient.
Michelle Feinberg, owner and creative director of New York Embroidery Studio was featured in session 5, Standards and PPE Manufacturing Capacity. As the panel presenter and moderator, Michelle produced insights on how personal protective equipment (PPE) standards affect manufacturing capacity and occupational use.
Personal Protective Equipment and Personal Protective Technology Product Standardization for a Resilient Public Health Supply Chain
Proceedings of a Workshop (2023)
The National Academies convened a public workshop in March 2023 to explore innovative approaches and technologies needed to update and streamline the U.S. standardization system for PPE and PPT in support of supply chain resiliency. Discussions included ways to improve the effectiveness, safety, supply stability, and accessibility of PPE and PPT designed for use in health care settings, by critical infrastructure workers, and by the general public. This Proceedings of a Workshop summarizes the discussions held during the workshop.
Panel discussions
Supply Chain Components and How Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Standards Affect Manufacturing Capacity
The panel examines how standards can impact PPE/PPT manufacturers’ capacity, both as a means to facilitate increasing capacity and as a potential barrier.
The studio used its ultrasonic welding equipment to make PPE during the COVID-19 pandemic as early as April 1, 2020. The first challenge Michelle and her colleagues faced was finding fabric, though she used her manufacturing experience and her supply chain to source fabric. Michelle learned quickly that PPE fabric manufacturing was largely offshore, but that fabric manufacturers would retool and innovate.
“We need to support our industrial base to reinforce our supply chain so that in the future, should we need to flex and surge, the domestic base must exist.” — Michelle
At the roundtable discussion about what a resilient PPE/PPT supply chain could involve, Michelle also agreed on an idea to establish a platform to receive end-user feedback. One model could be similar to the clearinghouse established during the COVID-19 pandemic where people could report side effects from COVID-19 vaccines.
*Please note that this publication, Personal Protective Equipment and Personal Protective Technology Product Standardization for a Resilient Public Health Supply Chain, can only be used as reference.