Spoonfuls of sugar. Industrial design innovations that make the medicine go down.
By Anne Guiney
When the average patient in a hospital gown describes medical equipment,
"sleek" and "user-friendly" are probably low on the
adjective list, way behind crowd favorites like "spooky" and
"painful." But design innovations are happening in this area,
far beyond the nifty repackaging of familiar medicine chest items.
The collaboration of industrial design firms and clinical device
manufacturers has spawned an extensive field of new medical products.
From them, we selected the ones that work best with the human body of
both practitioner and patient. Several of these products won this year's
Medical Design Excellence Award, given by the Industrial Designers
Society of America. Visit their Web site,
www.idsa.org, for more winners.
Bioreactor Cassette by IDEO for Advanced Tissue Sciences
Dermagraft-TC is a synthetic skin that is seeded with human cells; in
order to thrive, it can't be disturbed. A sort of organ incubator, this
box serves as growing chamber, shipping container, and all-around
guardian for your future patch of skin. It keeps the skinlet coddled at
any temperature, ranging from the factory's cryogenic freezer (-70°
Celsius) to that of your warm body (37° Celsius).
www.ideo.com
Medi-Monitor by Smart Design for InforMedix Inc.
Working from the solid assumption that pills are no good unless you take
them, the Medi-Monitor aims to keep people popping their meds correctly.
The doctor programs the videocassette-size device with what to take and
when. The patient gets medicine from prefilled trays (snapped onto the
bottom of the Medi-Monitor) and then sends a record of all activity back
to the doctor via a built-in modem.
Endoscope by Hauser for UIC
For the physician with a Star Trek fancy, this injection-molded plastic
endoscope resembles an accessory from the Enterprise sick bay. Its
innovation is the thumbwheel that, unlike the controls in standard
two-handed endoscopes, allows the surgeon to use one hand to manipulate
the illumination catheter, leaving the other free to operate the cutting
catheter. (Or salute the captain?)
www.hauserinc.com
Surgical Footswitch by Hauser for Coopervision/Alcon
People talk about surgeons' hands, but feet go unsung outside the o.r. In ophthalmic surgery, they play a key role. It's crucial to keep the patient's eye moist throughout the procedure, and for years, the machine that flushes the eye with liquid has been operated by foot pedal. This new model streamlines the controls into a smaller space and therefore reduces the range of motion demanded by big foot-switches past. www.hauserinc.com
Integris H5000 Cardiac X-ray by Philips Design for Philips While cardiac X-rays are not the most frightening procedure around these days, the Integris H5000 still aims to eliminate any lingering fears. Cardiac X-ray machines spin a C-shaped arm, equipped with cameras, around a thin platform on which the patient lies. This refined H5000 boasts clean, simple forms, great digital imaging, and anticollision sensors to keep everything running smoothly. www.medical.philips.com
Lilly Humalog/Humulin Pen by IDEO for Eli Lilly
The insulin pen is a simple idea: it takes cartridges that contain
enough synthesized human insulin for several injections, eliminating the
need to fill a syringe for each dose. This one--for the European
market--fits in the pocket and doesn't require any further prep.
Also, because many diabetics suffer from impaired eyesight, the Lilly
pen makes an audible click as each unit is measured out.
www.ideo.com
Dynamyte Augmentative Communicator by Deadalus Design for Sentient Systems
There are many reasons why some people are unable to communicate--from
cognitive problems to language barriers--so any machine designed to help
them speak must be enormously flexible. Using icons, letters, and a
speech synthesizer, the highly portable DynaMyte lends a voice (there
are 10 to choose from) to those who have difficulty using their
own.
Senso CIC Hearing Aid by WIDEX ApS
It has more processing power than many desktop computers but is
invisible once inside your ear canal. The Senso CIC Hearing Aid uses a
digital signal processor to analyze sound as it enters the ear and then
adjusts itself based on noise type. It can distinguish between fans at a
Knicks game, a howling baby, and murmured conversation, and amplifies or
filters out sound accordingly.
www.senso.com
Select Patient Monitor by Hauser
Followers of TV doctor dramas are familiar with the omimous wall of
machinery that usually surrounds patients. The Select is a single
flexible unit that performs the same functions as standard equipment
like EKG's and blood presure monitors. It conveniently treats each
monitor as a module that can be added or removed as needed without
restarting the system--a plug-and-play machine with vital signs.
www.hauserinc.com
The Wand by Herbst LaZar Bell for Milestone Scientific
The Wand works on the what-you-don't-know-can't-hurt-you principle: the
person in the dentist's chair thinks that the pen will release a
preliminary drop of anesthetic and that the fearsome hypodermic needle
full of novocaine is still to come. The sneaky but benign-looking Wand
actually delivers the standard injection via needle, but not until it
has numbed (and fooled) the patient.
Telesurgery by Avistar Systems Corp. Teleconferencing has been around for a while in business, but medicine is a new application for this technology. Images taken by tiny fiber-optic cameras in the tips of endoscopes and laparoscopes can be transmitted in real-time to doctors watching from afar. The quality is good enough that the remote observers can offer feedback to the local surgeons.
PF Profiler by Redgroup for Medical Graphics Group
The earliest devices for testing lung volume (to determine the status of
diseases like asthma, cystic fibrosis, and emphysema) were sealed
plywood boxes in which the patient would sit and blow air out through a
valve. While the basic technology hasn't changed drastically, the clear
walls of this pulmonary profiler go a long way toward eliminating that
claustrophobic feeling.
Access Home Monitoring System by Anderson Design for Corometrics Medical Systems
It's an awful irony that during a high-risk pregnancy, when medical
attention is most needed, travel can be difficult or impossible. With
this system's straightforward interface, the condition of mother and
fetus is easily checked at home; an internal modem will then relay
regularly updated information to the doctor. Software is updatable
post-pregnancy to accommodate other housebound patients (like that
newest, wrinkly one?).
