BY GWEN HAYES
Sentinel Editor
Right now its name is “Hep-Loc Dry Mitt.” Hopefully, it won’t be long before the invention that Ms. Gloria Wood found will be in use in hospitals and in stores for purchase.
A Registered Nurse with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Ms. Wood set out to find an easier way that patients can keep an IV site dry.
According to Jarett S. Rieger, Esquire, MBA, Director, Office of Technology Management and Commercialization (OTMC) and Associate General Counsel, Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, the invention presented by Ms. Wood is the first from a nurse.
“That is very significant,” he stated in a telephone interview. “Our office has been in existence since 2003 and we’ve executed 67 licenses and formed 9 companies. There have been 40 new inventions from staff,” he explained. Most of the inventions are cancer related.
The mission of this office is to protect new inventions and commercialize the cancer related discoveries made at Moffitt Cancer Center, Rieger said.
The Hep-Loc Dry Mitt is a glove of thin plastic that can be placed on the hand/forearm while a patient is bathing or showering. Or, it can be used by someone who has a hand/forearm wound.
This invention has been with the U. S. Patent Office since 2009. Currently, Ms. Wood and the OTMC are working with a medical device company to develop samples to insure that the project is useful.
Realizing that the latex/vinyl material used in current gloves because it’s too tight and too thick, Ms. Wood says that was her inspiration to come up with an idea for something better. Working in various hospitals and with outpatients, Ms. Wood says it’s difficult to keep IV sites dry. “The arm is sometimes wrapped in plastic, trash bags or plastic bags placed over the hand to keep the site dry,” she said.
After talking about her idea to friends, she was encouraged to seek a patent. She has been working on that ever since.
The native of Wadley, Alabama, after high school, Ms. Wood graduated from Southern Union State Junior College, University of Alabama and Florida State University. She has had several papers published and lectured on a number of other occasions.
Ms. Wood is a member of the Oncology Nursing Society, New Hope M. B. Church (Health Care Ministry and Gospel Choir) and Faces of Courage Support Group (committee member).
