AI-powered rooms in malls and offices can give you a checkup without a doctor present

Some of the hesitation in seeing a doctor regularly for checkups comes from embarrassment and fear, often because of people who are physically present during the consultation. The recent pandemic has made virtual consultations popular, but you still have to visit a clinic or hospital to actually perform tests like blood work or biometric scans. With today’s technologies, however, that shouldn’t even be necessary, at least for the most basic tests and diagnostics. Putting that theory into practice, this forward-looking cubical room combines advanced tools and everyone’s favorite special sauce, AI, to offer a “self-serve” clinic that can be set up almost anywhere so that people can have easier and less stressful access to healthcare.

Designer: Forward

We’re all advised to get regular checkups, especially when we start to feel something’s amiss. Unfortunately, access to healthcare services isn’t always easy or convenient. Clinics might be far away or doctors might have very long waiting times. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just walk into a room, use a few gadgets and gizmos, receive a quick diagnosis of your health, and maybe even get a legit prescription, all without even having to even physically meet with the physician? That’s the kind of quick and stress-free experience that the Forward CarePod is promising as the world’s first “AI Doctor’s Office.”

CarePod puts you in the driver’s seat of your health, almost literally considering the comfy chair inside the single-person room. You walk inside, answer a few tests to determine the kind of clinical test that needs to be done, and you use the provided tools to perform those tests, like drawing blood, swabbing your throat, taking your blood pressure, and the like. These are frontline clinical diagnostics that most nurses and doctors perform but can now also be done by yourself with the right tools, which means there will be no doctors or nurses inside CarePods. At least not human ones.

Of course, it isn’t enough to just get your diagnostic results. You’ll need a professional to interpret those results for you, which is also the job of physicians. With the CarePod system, however, that diagnosis is made by a proprietary AI that has learned from clinical expertise and the latest medical research. In addition to providing a diagnosis, that AI also formulates care plans called “Health Apps” that will guide the patient with programs and advice to address various diseases and disorders, including diabetes, hypertension, and even depression. CarePod doesn’t eliminate human doctors from the equation completely, as they are still needed for writing prescriptions or more in-depth consultations.

Impressive as all these technologies may sound, the most important aspect of CarePod is probably the fact that it can be installed almost anywhere. It is already being deployed in malls, gyms, and offices, places where clinical services are often unavailable, but it’s not hard to imagine these rooms being installed in every street corner in the future. This would give people access to healthcare that would otherwise be out of reach, which increases their chances of living healthier and longer lives.

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The Metaverse has the power to improve healthcare, and it has already begun

It doesn’t have to be all fun and games in the Metaverse, especially when its best use cases are the ones that need a different reality the most.

Thanks to a few companies that have large marketing machines, the word “Metaverse” has become muddled in hype and controversy. While the current use of the coined word might be new to our ears, the technologies that empower it have been around for quite some time now. And they aren’t always used for games or entertainment, even if that is what everyone thinks these days. In fact, one of the most frequent early adopters of these technologies come from the medical field, which continuously tests new equipment, theories, and digital experiences to help improve lives. So while mainstream media, carmakers, and social networks continue to shine the light on new ways to experience different worlds, the Metaverse, its concepts, and its applications are already sneaking their way into medical and scientific institutions, ready to take healthcare to the next, augmented reality level.

Telepresence Training and Consultation

If you ask somebody about the Metaverse today, they will either look at you as if you were a crazy person because they have no idea what it means, or they will look at you as if you were a crazy person for glorifying games and virtual worlds like Second Life. Thanks to how it has been portrayed, especially by Meta, formerly Facebook, that has become the stigma that the term and the concept will carry for the next few years. At its most basic, however, the so-called Metaverse is really nothing but a combination of AI, AR, VR, blockchain, and related technologies that try to bind the digital and the physical world together into a more coherent whole. Sometimes, even something as simple as a virtual video call is already Metaverse-worthy, with or without the goggles.

This kind of visual communication can be critical not just in keeping people socially close while physically apart but also in keeping the world turning even when locked indoors. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has forced many people to resort to video calls for work and even for doctor’s appointments. Telemedicine became a thing in the past two years, but things aren’t going to stop there. With the help of VR and AR applications, medical personnel and healthcare workers can extend their reach, even when the real thing isn’t in front of them.

No, this isn’t the frightening scenario of performing surgeries remotely (we’ll get to that later) but the simple case of training personnel or even informing patients through virtual channels. Although nothing really beats the real thing, there are some pieces of information, like learning how to operate machinery, that don’t really need in-person training most of the time. And if diagrams and charts are effective in educating patients about various diseases and medical conditions, imagine how a more interactive and lifelike demonstration in the Metaverse can be more effective.

Designer: 8chili

Digital Twins

The phrase might conjure up horrific images, particularly of scenes from iconic horror films in the 80s, but digital twins are less frightening or even less dramatic than they sound. In essence, a digital twin is pretty much an exact replica of a physical thing, in this case, a person, based on real-world data. This replica can undergo hundreds of simulated changes in just minutes or even seconds that would normally take hundreds of years in real-time.

In this application, machine learning and AI take center stage over AR and VR, determining the possible results based on changing factors. To put it bluntly, a digital twin could be used as a virtual guinea pig, testing different medications and doses, different procedures, and different treatment options to see which ones will have the best possible outcome for a patient. All of these can happen in a matter of seconds, perhaps even while in the middle of an operation.

Digital twins can be used on more than just humans, of course. The same kind of high-speed trial and error can be applied to developing medicine, analyzing viruses, studying animals and plants, and anything else that can be solved with some simulations. Of course, looking at all these data as just figures and text would be boring and even painful, so 3D models can go a long way in visualizing and understanding the results of these simulations. Bonus points if you can view them in the Metaverse, too!

Designer: Philips

AR Surgery

Thanks to Hollywood, many people probably imagine surgery in the world of AR and the Metaverse as involving doctors doing procedures miles or even countries away from the patient. While that could have life-saving benefits, we don’t really need to go that far yet to reap the benefits of the technology in the operating room. Simply being able to see more information than what’s physically in front of us goes a long way in improving our knowledge and understanding, which is really the heart of augmented reality, without the hype and sensationalism.

Doctors require a lot of imagination when working on patients, and not in the flights of fantasy kind of way. They might not have a clear view of what they’re operating on, or they have to work with microscopic materials that would be impossible to see with the naked eye. Although these professionals have been working like these for decades, that doesn’t mean things have to stay that way, especially if technology can help ease the burden.

AR-assisted surgeries have already been performed with much success, but you often don’t hear about those in contrast to news about this or that new Metaverse platform. Being able to see where to drill inside a bone or where to put a screw can make procedures faster and safer. Of course, you’ll need better AR glasses to make that happen because the current consumer models we have just won’t cut it on the operating table, pun intended.

Designer: Augmedics (via John Hopkins Medicine)

Blockchain Records

Not everything about the Metaverse has to be visible, or at least not in its real forms. Of course, the Metaverse can be reduced down to 1s and 0s, just like any computer program, but most people that experience it will be focused on digital artifacts like VR objects. One of the “non-visible” technologies that are being associated with the Metaverse is blockchain, and despite misconceptions, it actually has the potential to protect virtual people and data, including medical records.

Designer: ChenKai Zhang

Blockchain has gotten a lot of flak because of its association with controversial applications like cryptocurrencies and, more recently, NFTs. Like any other tool, however, it is really agnostic. Blockchains are more concerned about keeping a record of transactions joined together by cryptography in a chain. Each node in a blockchain network contains a copy of that chain and is updated with new transactions all the time. The decentralized and cryptographic nature of blockchains makes them almost perfect for protecting data, such as sensitive medical records.

Of course, that’s the ideal scenario, but blockchains are so new to the hearing and minds of anyone outside the computing industry that its applications to things like financial and medical records are still blowing people’s, especially legislators’, minds. Given the highly sensitive nature of medical data, this might take a while before a stable and trustworthy blockchain system is accepted and put in place.

Designer: Functionland Design

Gamification

The Metaverse being about having fun and games isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when done in moderation. In fact, playing games isn’t a bad thing, despite the connotations and prejudices surrounding even just the word. People have learned long ago that games, or specifically gameful activities, can be beneficial to learning and adapting to new things. It can even help people cope with trauma or stress.

Gamification, or the application of game thinking and game mechanics to non-game activities, has been around for years now. From leaderboards to levels to high scores, these small things can give a sense of accomplishment that reinforces the new knowledge that we just gained. And since the very same technologies that are used to make games also make the Metaverse, the intersection of gamification and the Metaverse is pretty much in the bag.

NASA, for example, has enlisted a game developer that specializes in using games to train people, particularly doctors, in diagnosing and treating different conditions. The idea is to train astronauts to have enough medical knowledge in an emergency, in case it’s the onboard doctor that needs treatment. These educational tools have all the hallmarks of typical mobile games, except it trains you with serious, life-saving skills rather than just mashing the screen to get kills.

Designer: Level Ex

Wrap-up

The Metaverse might sound new, but it’s actually built on old technology. AR and VR have been around for decades, but it’s only now that they’re becoming more commercially available. Blockchain technologies are finally becoming more comprehensible even to lawmakers. The psychology of games has been lurking in plain sight in productivity tools and educational materials. You just never considered them to be formal games.

The hype around the Metaverse might have many people rolling their eyes, but all that focus has some benefits. It puts a spotlight on what the Metaverse can actually do, even separate from all the social and entertainment aspects. It brings to light how these technologies have actually been working in the background in different fields, including medicine, and how the Metaverse can be used not only to improve lives but also to save them.

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This wearable helps you go healthy food shopping based on DNA analysis

The sharpest of minds have been studying DNA for more than 70 years now, for a better understanding of the human species and how the individual’s biology is shaped. While this subject is as wide as the expanse of the oceans, we’re getting a better idea of each of its properties making us all unique in our own rights. Our DNA affects the way in which our body responds to the foods we eat, and that explains how some of us are allergic to some eatables while some others are good for our body.

A diet plan for one individual might not be the best fit for another, that’s why millions of dollars are invested into health and fitness across the world every year. Understanding the science behind the food we eat, and how it metabolizes is worth its weight in gold. In this quest, DnaNudge has developed a niche wearable capable of recommending and even saving the unassuming shoppers from making bad choices.

Designer: UDL Industrial Design

More like a fitness tracker that sits on your wrist bone, the wearable dubbed DnaBand performs an on-the-spot genetic analysis of the foods being chosen for the wearer. Basically, all you have to do is scan the barcode of a grocery or eatable item with the DnaBand. If the product is good for you based on the genetic analysis, the green light comes up, and if it’s not the best-suited thing to have, the red light indicator comes up.

As the database of the wearable keeps growing, the recommendations for the best foods to have also keep improving drastically. The result, you’ll never be feeding your body (unless you have the grit and determination) with food items that’ll harm your biology in the long run. Thereby, helping avoid the chances of long-term health problems. These recommendations are stored locally on the wearable band too inside the small bean-shaped capsule.

To make things practical, the DnaBand will only encourage you to adopt healthy eating and drinking habits. For example, it will tell you if based on your DNA, having low sugar chocolate will be beneficial. It’ll be more of a psychological change in lifestyle rather than a complete overhaul of habits overnight. Small changes in shopping habits will gradually put the user on the path to better health, the scientifically proven way.

The DNA analysis will be combined with real-time fitness activities to recommend dietary items. For instance, if you are mostly on a low fitness regime for a week, foods lesser in carbohydrates will light up green, while if some other week you are on a stringent fitness routine, food items with high carbohydrates will trigger the wearable to go green.

Other than the cool health tracking bit, the wearable band is ultra-comfortable to wear with a magnetic leather strap that goes with every wrist size. All the real-time data is saved locally on the band in an encrypted manner to avoid any data breaches. With the DnaBand users will be always aware of what they are putting in their system to make better health-related choices.

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Wearable health monitoring gets stylish with these rings that can potentially watch your glucose

If smartwatches and fitness bands aren’t your thing, then something more discreet like this smart ring could still keep you on top of your health.

Although fitness trackers have been around for years, recent events have caused a surge not only in interest but also in sales. The arrival of smartwatches also made it easier for people to keep tabs on their bodies, and the Apple Watch’s plethora of health monitoring features have become the gold standard for these wearables. Not everyone, however, is willing to part with their favorite timepiece, and wearing a rugged-looking fitness band might clash with their preferred fashion style. Fortunately, there are companies already putting a ring on health, and Movano might have the most stylish one to rule them all.

Designer: Movano

Admittedly, there aren’t that many players in this smart ring market, at least the ones that are intended to keep track of health rather than giving wearers some techno-magical powers to control devices. The most notable of this bunch is perhaps Oura, but its style and size definitely don’t appeal to everyone. That’s where the Movano Ring comes in, offering an alternative that specifically caters to women that prefer something less conspicuous and even fashionable.

It’s easy to mistake the Movano Ring as a fashion accessory rather than a health tracker, coming in Gold, Silver, Copper, and Black colors. The open-loop or twisted design gives it more personality while also ensuring that it can adjust to any finger size. More importantly, you won’t see the bare electronics underneath, unlike on the Oura, at least if product renders are to be believed.

 

Movano’s wearable isn’t just a pretty face, though, and it promises the staple features you’d find on larger wearables. That includes measuring heart rate and heart rate variability, sleep, respiration, temperature, blood oxygen levels, steps, and calories. It correlates this data and transforms them into information and advice that most people will be able to understand, rather than having to rely on charts and graphs to try and make sense of all the figures.

The one thing holding back the Movano Ring is its availability, which might not happen until later this year. That does give it enough time to get FDA approval for some of the features that require regulatory clearance first. Even while preparing its first product, the young startup is already settings its sights high, putting resources into R&D for non-invasive glucose monitoring and cuffless blood pressure measuring, which could quickly put it ahead of the competition.

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Medical innovations designed to boost and transform modern day healthcare!

2020-21 has ingrained in me an age-old adage my mom loves to quote – health is wealth. Focus on our healthcare and the strain on our healthcare system has increased exponentially this year. While the world altogether has jumped up to help improve our healthcare systems, what can truly help is improved preventive methods, devices that help the patients monitor their health from home as well as to stay in touch with their doctors virtually while providing accurate data. The best example of the data’s impact is how an Apple Watch helped saved a man’s life by detecting problems with his heartbeat – and this is just the beginning. The products here show the best of healthcare we can provide to make this world a better place!

Literally, the size of a quarter, Adam Miklosi’s Dab is an unobtrusive Holter ECG/EKG that rests comfortably on your chest, constantly reading your heart’s movements. Designed to be minimal, non-invasive, and simple, the Dab tries to bridge the gap between medical appliances and wearables. Its tiny yet classy design sits on your chest via a gel patch, while the electrodes capture your heart activity. The Dab’s dry-electrodes allow it to be used and reused, while constantly measure one’s heart activity (requiring periodic charging via their wireless charging hub), and keep logs of accurate readings, quietly sitting on your chest while you absolutely forget that they’re even there in the first place!

MIT scientist Yoel Fink has worked on developing smart fabrics for longer than a decade. In 2010, Fink and some of his colleagues produced fibers that could detect audio. A first for smart fabric developments, the fiber could be woven into a fabric, which transformed it into a needle-thin, working microphone. Today, the team of scientists continues work on spinning fibers into the smart fabric but moves past analog capabilities towards a digital future, weaving fibers that carry continuous electrical signals into a piece of wearable smart fabric. Published in a Nature Communications academic journal, Fink’s research suggests that the fibers carrying electrical signals could be woven into the wearable smart fabric for “applications in physiological monitoring, human-computer interfaces, and on-body machine-learning.”





While we can’t control accidents, we can be better prepared for them, and SCALED is a project from RCA aimed at doing exactly that – protecting and healing you to improve the quality of life to keep pace with longevity. This could be the next generation of casts that merge protection, healing, and mobility into one superhero-like wearable! Research shows that human joint injuries are often recurrent and likely to cause long-term immobility. Designer Natalie Kerres then looked at nature for inspiration to come up with a solution and zeroed down on animals that physically protected from threats by skin, shells, or scales. She wanted to design a product that mimicked the natural protection and healing while allowing flexibility – that is how SCALED was born. “The geometry of animal scales has changed through the process of evolution according to environmental parameters which are critical for survival. A scale structure is capable of impact force distribution and, moreover, is flexible in one direction and limiting/interlocking in another,” she explains.





Shuai decided to create a medical design solution for this country that could make CPR, the most helpful and effective implementation to save cardiac arrest victims, a more accessible service. That is how CANNE came to be! It raises the survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests by addressing the local, societal and cultural needs. He found out that implementation of CPR is extremely low, only 4.5% in large and medium-sized cities in China while a country like Sweden has a rate of 46-73%. He wanted his project to provide a flexible and efficient self-directed CPR learning solution to encourage more people to learn and improve their life-saving skills. CANNE addresses the problem of people not having the motivation to join a CPR course because of fewer opportunities, fewer interests, high cost, fast-paced lifestyle, and less awareness. CPR training also requires mannequins which are expensive and given the population of China, teaching cost is a big factor to keep in mind. The less qualified full-time instructors, short supply, and overworked skilled physicians were other significant barriers that were uncovered during research.





A conventional syringe, those plastic tubes with the string-thin steel needle, requires the use of five different materials for construction including steel, polyethylene, rubber, resin, glue, and thermal dye. To make the construction process less laborious and costly, Helix is constructed from a single material: FlexiOH UV, a heat-curable type of silicone. To maintain Helix’s collapsible parts’ flexibility and the needle’s rigidity, the designers employed thermal-curing, a temperature-induced hardening process.

The Bend is a medical finger-splint with a revolutionary design. Finger bone fractures can be painful, however dislocations of bones isn’t just about pain, if not treated well, you could lose functionality of that finger for life. The bend makes use of a polymer’s tensile strength, and clever design to provide a medical solution that is not just effective, it’s non-invasive too. Deviating from current medical procedures that require surgery, the Bend just needs a long fingernail. A piece of thread is tied to the fingernail at one end, and the Bend splint at the other. The string is then wound around the splint, so that the finger is pulled into shape again, allowing the bones to align properly. The bend even allows for finger movement, letting the patient heal as well as recover from the injury as quick as possible!

The Medisight aims to solve this comfort issue and improve on existing PPE options for a post-pandemic world. Unlike a standard surgical mask, this product allows for continual airflow behind the face cover, so the user isn’t trapped breathing the same stale air. For added comfort, the Medisight’s frame wraps around the head, staying secure with minimal face contact. The clear shield also lets patients see the user’s face, helping them form a more personal connection. It is also helpful for hearing-impaired individuals, who may rely on reading lips to communicate. Additionally, as a small but important bonus: the Medisight is reusable, unlike standard medical masks, which would help reduce medical waste. The designer says, “The plan is to continue the functional study of materials through various experiments. In addition, in order to realize the concept design of medical devices, we would like to contribute to the development of international medical services by conducting joint research through contact with various medical device companies. Through this, the ultimate goal is to provide more convenient products in the medical environment of medical staff.”

Chicago-based startup Cast21, however, has designed a sleeve that fits over any hand. Cast21’s cast takes shape around your hand once it’s filled with a patented gel that hardens over time. Doctors select a sleeve-size based on whether the patient is a child or a fully-grown adult. The sleeve is slipped on, and filled with a patented mixture of resins that become a malleable gel after a while. The doctor can then adjust the gel to perfectly hug the limb, giving it the support it needs. Patients can even choose between gel-colors, opting for combinations and gradients, breaking the stigma that casts need to look horribly clinical. The resins harden through an exothermic reaction, providing soothing heat to the limb as the cast begins to take shape.





The design studio Valkiria has put a lot of time and research into creating the blueprint, and final product of the Mercur Immobilizer Boot M1 leg braces with consultation from existing users of other such braces and health experts who conveyed the problem and the intended solution they would want. In the end, Valkiria managed to come up with a product that is safe, stays consistent in its shape with use, and intended for long-term usage if the rehabilitation period is extended. The form and function of the Boot M1 facilitate the user with both feet fit as it is bilateral – in both longer and shorter versions depending on the need. Also, there are the anatomical plastic nails that reduce the pressure on the calf, and for easy opening and closing, there is the Velcro fastening system. To address the smelling issue, the design studio chooses a breathable material to annihilate the growth of bacteria and keep the heat down.

Taking the evolution of medical surgeries a step further, MIT engineers have crafted an origami-inspired medical patch that can wrap around your internal organs with the utmost ease. This design makes it pretty useful in application to internal injuries or sensitive parts of the internal organs – airways, intestines, or hard-to-reach spaces. Aesthetically speaking, the design appears just like a foldable piece of paper; this patch contacts the tissues and organs. After that, it morphs into a thick gel that stays firmly on the injured area until it heals. The patch is made up of three layers – the top layer is an elastomer film consisting of zwitterionic polymers that become a water-based skin-like barrier. The middle layer is the bio-adhesive hydrogel having the compound NHS esters to form a strong bond with the tissue surface. The bottom layer is made up of silicone oil to prevent it from sticking to the body surface before reaching the intended target.

Amazon’s Amazen meditative boxes and new safety program plans to reduce workplace injuries by 50%

Striving to become ‘Earth’s Safest Place to Work,’ in 2021, Amazon pumped $300 million into safety projects. Intending to cut annual recordable incidents rates– or work-related injuries that result in loss of consciousness, days away from work, restricted work, or transferring of job in half, the giant corporation says in a press release that the new safety programs “will help prevent injuries, provide wellness services, and offer quality healthcare for employees while at work and at home.” Dubbing it WorkingWell, the new overarching safety effort consists of a comprehensive program that provides employees with physical and mental activities, wellness exercises, and healthier food options at work and home.

Coming out of a record-breaking year, accruing an annual revenue of $386 billion, Amazon shelled out $300 million for safety projects in 2021. In Amazon’s press release, it said that WorkingWell incorporates “scientifically proven health and safety education and exercises,” such as health and safety huddles where groups of employees learn in collaboration about rotating topics that range from gripping and handling machinery to health and wellness. Wellness Zones “provide employees with voluntary stretching and muscle recovery via easily accessible, dedicated spaces within Amazon’s operations buildings”. AmaZen brings employees into interactive kiosks that are dotted throughout Amazon’s factories to guide them through meditation and mindfulness practices. Keeping the press release aside, these tiny rooms or “individual interactive kiosks,” look too small to provide any actual relief. In fact, the company faced quite a backlash over their release, with Amazon actually deleting a video of Amazen they initially shared on Twitter.

EatWell positions employees to develop healthier eating habits by “increasing the availability of healthier [food] options.” Another safety effort, Amazon’s Neighborhood Health Center, manifests as a partnership with Crossover Health, providing employees with access to comprehensive primary care services that “focus on acute, chronic, and preventive primary healthcare needs.” Employees situated behind workstations will also be notified of hourly computer prompts that guide them through “scientifically proven physical and mental activities to help recharge and re-energize.” In 2019, Amazon fulfillment centers reported 14,000 severe injuries, which increased by 33% since 2016. By integrating WorkingWell into their factories and safety measures, Amazon announces a goal of cutting that number in half by 2025.

Designer: Amazon

AmaZen and EatWell provide Amazon employees with opportunities to meditate and develop healthier eating habits at work.

Group huddles allow Amazon employees to collaborate and learn about health and wellness as well as the proper handling of onsite machinery.

The hourly computer prompts remind Amazon employees to move around to “recharge and re-energize.”

Inspired by origami, this collapsible syringe provides an eco-friendly alternative to reduce biomedical waste!





Billions of needles and syringes are used each year, including needles used for injections made by those who are healthcare professionals and those who are not. When improperly disposed of, needle and syringe waste can create a serious biohazard since the inner tubing’s infected blood cannot be broken down or processed through recycling. This mass accumulation of waste might reach a peak with the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, but one designer has already taken to the drawing board for solutions. Helix, a collapsible syringe, was designed by Daniel López Velasco & Ithzel Libertad Cerón López as a green alternative to the disposable devices used in today’s health sector.

A conventional syringe, those plastic tubes with the string-thin steel needle, requires the use of five different materials for construction including steel, polyethylene, rubber, resin, glue, and thermal dye. To make the construction process less laborious and costly, Helix is constructed from a single material: FlexiOH UV, a heat-curable type of silicone. To maintain Helix’s collapsible parts’ flexibility and the needle’s rigidity, the designers employed thermal-curing, a temperature-induced hardening process.

Inspired by the ability to compact lots of volume and space through the paper-folding art of origami, Helix’s crystalline, silicone structure is able to carry liquids for vaccines and be emptied once collapsed. Medication can be poured into Helix through a vacuum loading inlet located above the needle’s rigid plunger. Then, when ready for use, the rigid plunger sinks down and compresses the collapsible plunger, successfully and safely administering the medication to the patient through the rigid silicone needle.

In constructing Helix from a single material and giving it a compact, collapsible structure, the designers created a green alternative to the conventional syringe and needle, reducing its size by 30%. The issue of biomedical waste might be reaching a peak with the onset of 2020’s global pandemic and the upcoming vaccine rollout, but designs like Helix help streamline safe healthcare practices while maintaining World Health Organization and environmental standards.

Designers: Daniel López Velasco & Ithzel Libertad Cerón López

Entirely constructed from a single material, each Helix syringe is made from FlexiOH UV, a heat-curable type of silicone.

Inspired by the paper-folding art of origami, Helix employs a collapsible method for giving safe doses of medication.





The rigid needle of Helix is made from the same material as the rest of the collapsible syringe.

The silicone needle is strong enough to substitute the steel needle.

The rigidity of Helix’s needle and the flexibility of the syringe was achieved through a process called Thermal-curing.

Medication is loaded into Helix through a vacuum loading inlet located at the top of the syringe.

When in use, the collapsible syringe administers medication to the patient through a double hollow, allowing the medication to flow freely.

Without the need to remove the needle from the syringe before disposal, Helix can be disposed of completely.

Microsoft hopes its cloud expertise can modernize nonprofits

After debuting its new Industry Cloud service with a suite of tools for the healthcare sector last year and unveiling a Retail-specific version in January, Microsoft is ready to introduce more areas of focus. The company is announcing today three new...