Wake Forest Baptist Health Helping To Design Reusable PPE For Health Workers

Wake Forest Baptist Health is taking part in a study to develop better-fitting reusable face coverings for health care workers.

Wake Forest School of Medicine researchers are part of a team effort to design improved personal protective equipment (PPE) products for workers in the healthcare industry.

The hope is that better-designed masks will help protect workers from COVID-19 variants that have already begun to spread in the United States.

The School of Medicine is leading a feasibility study in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Open Standard Industries (OSI), a PPE manufacturer.

Philip Brown is an OSI co-founder and assistant professor at the School of Medicine. Brown says in a news release that clinicians are struggling with ill-fitting disposable masks that don't provide adequate protection. He says the feasibility study will help researchers develop comfortable, reusable N95 masks that will better protect a diverse clinical workforce.

Full enrollment for the study is expected to be complete by the end of May.

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