Mike Fisher was on the phone at 10 p.m. on a Tuesday in late March when he first heard of an idea a local pediatrician had to protect health care workers from the spread of COVID-19.
This pediatrician, Dr. Alison Craig, devised a desktop droplet barrier, a plastic shield with two holes large enough for arms to fit through. Craig thought of the device while wrestling over ways to protect the staff of doctors she oversees as chief of staff for Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin.
Fisher, who lives in Madison, jumped on the idea.
He reached out to his boss and others at Heartwood Creations, a business in Rockford, Ill., that Fisher founded and sold to a close friend in 2007. Heartwood Creations sells handcrafted jewelry boxes, but production was suspended because of the spread of COVID-19. Fisher knew the equipment sitting there could be used to make these…
