The article as published in The Lancet can be accessed here.

"It's important that we have data on real, self-reported PPE shortages from those who don't have enough equipment," said Ali Raja, MD, MBA, Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Even as we approach four months into this pandemic since the first confirmed case in the US. As the supply chain catches up, we hope that the situation will improve, but the data show that PPE shortages remain a serious problem even at this stage in the pandemic. This unique online information resource provides qualitative data that will prove to be an invaluable resource for healthcare facilities and help guide the restoration of the supply chain at a national level."


Correspondence pieces represent the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of The Lancet or any Lancet specialty journal. Unlike Articles containing original research, not all Correspondences are externally peer reviewed.

About Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) includes items such as respirators, face shields, gowns, booties, and gloves that protect workers from viral particles on surfaces and during other situations of close patient contact. When treating patients suspected of having coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends contact and droplet precautions, which requires only a procedural mask, gloves, and eye protection. But emerging research [1] demonstrates "that viable virus could be detected in aerosols up to 3 hours post aerosolization" – and prevention of aerosolized (i.e., airborne) spread requires a specific kind of respirator mask (N95) capable of filtering out virus-containing droplets. However, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has estimated that the US has roughly 1% of the 3.5 billion N95 masks needed to manage a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic [2]. A significant increase in PPE manufacturing is critical: healthcare workers simply cannot work safely without these protections.


About the Demand Data Hub
The Demand Data Hub is a single online destination for healthcare workers to report their PPE needs and serves as the authoritative source for PPE demand data. Developed jointly by GetUsPPE and Project N95, the Demand Data Hub includes PPE requests from over 7,000 healthcare facilities. By providing a single, trusted and centralized repository for PPE requirements data, the Demand Data Hub reduces fragmentation of the data, which enables a more efficient and accurate response to healthcare facilities that are experiencing PPE shortages during the pandemic crisis. In addition to their work on the Demand Data Hub, GetUsPPE and Project N95 will continue to operate independently to develop supply chain solutions for PPE for sale (Project N95) and donated PPE (GetUsPPE).

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