Research and development companies in Sudbury are stepping up in the fight against COVID-19

Sudbury businesses coming up with innovative ideas Several Sudbury businesses are coming up with innovative ideas to help in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Alana Pickrell reports.

SUDBURY — Research and development companies in Sudbury are coming up with innovative solutions to help the community in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Monetary donations, protective equipment and technology to help keep front-line workers safe, are now being rolled out in the city.

SNOLAB has already donated several boxes of personal protective equipment to Health Sciences North to help fill the immediate need for front line workers.

"We use very similar personal protective equipment, very similar PPE in our clean room, that is required for the medical teams looking after COVID patients," said Nigel Smith, executive director of SNOLAB

"So it seemed like the right thing to contribute where we could."

SNOLAB is also working along-side several partners, including Hard-Line and Laurentian University, to print 3D masks or shields, to donate to the hospital.

According to a release from Hard-Line, 300 PPE headbands were dropped off on April 1st and hundreds more are expected to be delivered Friday.

"Obviously it's really important that everybody is stepping up where they can," said Smith.

"We know we're not front line medical staff, but we feel it's incredibly important to support them where we can and to do that through the precision of the PPE like we're doing."

Meanwhile, Ionic Mechatronics is promoting a temperature screening mobile application that was developed with the World Health Organization during the Ebola crisis.

The screening application can be used on smartphones to help detect surface temperature, according to general manager, Andre Dumais.

"It cannot detect a fever, however, what the system can do is detect whether someone's surface temperature is a little higher than average which could incidence a fever."

Dumais says in the midst of COVID-19, he has seen a lot of false advertising about thermal cameras claiming to accurately monitor temperature.

"It's the software and the knowledge that we have backed by medical professionals and the World Health Organization that have allowed us to develop a system that will prevent or that will help identify people who are at risk of having a fever," said Dumais.

The software is designed for rapid scanning for companies or businesses that have a lot of employees.

If someone is shown to have an above average surface temperature, that employee could then be removed for secondary screening using addtional medical equipment.

"We're really trying our best to find out 'what can we do now to help our clients move forward?'"