ClearMask

In late 2017, a team of Johns Hopkins University graduate students and alumni started developing the transparent mask after their deaf co-founder experienced an adverse experience during her surgery. For someone who depends on facial expressions, visual cues, and lipreading daily, traditional surgical masks blocked Allysa Dittmar’s providers’ faces, impeding effective communication and safety. 

The team set out to develop the ClearMask™ transparent face mask, which is the first and only fully transparent face mask on the market that is FDA cleared. Since facial expressions and visual communication are fundamental to how we communicate and connect as human beings, the ClearMask™ brand helps make connections more human and provides clearer communication for all. 

A product initially created to help improve visual communication and make healthcare more human, the ClearMask™ transparent face masks have been adopted by many different sectors for different purposes throughout the pandemic. The ClearMask™ transparent face masks calm anxious patients through a visible, reassuring smile at the hospital, connect educators and childcare professionals with their students and children of different needs and abilities, and provide critical accessibility to the 48 million Americans who have hearing loss, including older people, those with dementia, veterans, and many more. The ClearMask™ transparent face mask also enables those who rely on visual communication to continue thriving in the workplace and empowers them to adapt into a radically different new world as we fight a global pandemic.