Dr. Anne McIntosh went into labor with her first baby and was confronted with a problem that many people with hearing loss experience in hospitals every day. When McIntosh was moved into the operating room, all there—the anesthesiologist, the delivery doctor, the nurses, and her husband—were required to wear full surgical garb. And all wore traditional mouth-concealing surgical masks. No longer able to read lips, McIntosh was completely cut off from the team providing her care. After this experience, she realized she needed to act. “I decided then and there that if there wasn’t a solution available, I would create one,” she says. McIntosh did some research and discovered there were no FDA-approved surgical masks on the market that provided a clear window enabling patients to see care providers’ lips when they were speaking. So, she decided to develop a product for them. It took several years, but the product she created in partnership with Prestige-America, The Communicator™ Clear Window Surgical Mask from Safe ‘n Clear, finally won FDA approval and hit the market at the end of 2017.

Source: Hearing Tracker