The Touchless Glove Remover: A Biosafety Necessity

Medical professionals lack safety when removing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the presence of infectious disease patients, in the current situation those diagnosed with COVID-19. Current practice involves removing the latex gloves last, involving a significant likelihood of contact with contaminated glove surfaces. Furthermore, doctors, nurses, and medical staff constantly change gloves, another point of potential infection. According to a 2015 National Institute of Health (NIH) study, contamination occurs 46% of the time when removing gloves manually, further substantiating the urgency of the glove-to-skin contamination issue as pandemic variants and infectious diseases continue to affect the global population.



Through a competitive market analysis, no glove removing apparatus or method exists wherein there is no skin-contact. Few products address this issue, yet have not eliminated skin-contact entirely, the only metric to ensure zero contamination.



As the daughter of a first responder who treated COVID-19 patients daily during the heart of the pandemic, and as part of a household with three susceptible members to the disease, I designed a healthcare invention which facilitates skin contact-free glove removal, through a 3D printed device with a foot-pedal mechanism. This functional prototype emerged after approximately two years of iterating at the Design and Innovation Lab at La Jolla Country Day School (LJCDS) in San Diego, California. After two design and prototype pitches at my school, funding of $2500 was granted by business and design professionals to improve and protect the design. A provisional patent is filed for the design.



Successful user-testing trials with professionals from Rady Children's Hospital gave insight into future product development, and the necessity of such a product in healthcare facilities. Current collaboration with La Jolla Institute For Immunology and their biosafety committee will offer essential input in preparation for practical implementation. Further enhancement includes addition of motion sensors in lieu of the foot pedal.