We are delighted to announce and share today our new transparent masks! The medical grade masks have been produced by our team in partnership with Bluetree Group and are ideal for supporting communication with patients.
The BrillianSeeTM project came to life after Wendy Blumenow, a specialist senior speech and language therapist, got in touch with our Innovation team for support when she realised that wearing face covers got in the way of delivering effective speech and language therapy.
Our Innovation Team, together with Wendy’s expert clinical input, worked in partnership with the UK manufacturer Bluetree Group to create BrillianSeeTM, a new type of transparent face mask that significantly and safely improves communication with patients and families.
Taking delivery of the first masks, Wendy said: “This will make a huge difference to the children in my care– they will finally be able to see my face and benefit from their speech therapy while staying protected from Covid-19”.
The BrillianSeeTM mask offers improved communication compared with other masks as you can see the face clearly, allowing for improved reading and interpretation of non-verbal cues. It is comfortable to wear and allows for unencumbered movement of the lower face. These features are essential when the patient has difficulties such as deafness and other communications issues which mean they need to lip read in order to understand what is being said to them.
Holly Brown, Innovation Consultant and Project Lead said; “The BrillianSeeTM mask will allow staff and patients to communicate effectively and will deliver utmost care for our patients, families and staff who rely on lip reading. I understand that mask wearing has been a particular challenge for these individuals, which made me determined to create a product that meets their needs, whilst keeping them safe”.
Currently the prototypes are being trialed at Alder Hey, across various teams, in order to gather feedback to inform the finished product. We are looking forward to the point when BrillianSeeTM will be rolled out Trust wide and used wider throughout the NHS.
We cant wait to see BrillianSeeTM make a real impact on how we communicate whilst wearing face masks.