Philips Healthcare

VHC Light Touch Mask

Philips partnered with Humanfactors to develop a unique respiratory mask, one capable of providing a broader scope of users with greater comfort and a tighter seal. The mask’s contact surface had to conform to each user’s unique facial geometry, requiring a material capable of great flexibility and compression. The mask’s foundational architecture was iteratively derived using facial geometry captured using 3D scanning technology, which was then integrated into test fixtures designed to measure performance. What appears to be just another mask belies a great deal of ergonomic study, materials research, manufacturing strategy, and user observation that yielded the first mask to feature an integrated soft-seal material. Read Philips’s product description below:

The LiteTouch Mask for OptiChamber Diamond VHCs is designed to provide greater wearing comfort and easier aerosol delivery than more conventional face masks. Its clear structure provides an unrestricted view of the patient’s face during therapy and exclusive soft-seal technology makes the LiteTouch less “technique dependent” than most mask designs. The LiteTouch mask fits onto the mouthpiece of a Philips Respironics OptiChamber Diamond valved holding chamber (VHC) and functions by simply touching the mask seal lightly to the patient’s face. It is detachable for easy replacement and cleaning. The LiteTouch’s unique design features a clear, hard shell molded on to a soft-seal interface. The soft-seal quickly and comfortably conforms to the patient’s’ facial contours, providing a soft, secure fit for greater comfort as well as improved medication delivery when used with metered dose inhalers (MDI).