Tag Archives: medical care

These portable medical devices are designed be a completely incognito health monitoring setup

Posted on by

Lunit is a collection of portable medical devices designed to be inconspicuous for comfortable use in public settings.

Portable medical devices are trusted by those of us with health conditions such as asthma, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Recontextualizing the portable medical device to be more accessible and tactful, designers Dayeon Jang and Sungchae Park created Lunit, a collection of portable medical devices designed for use in public settings.

Lunit is comprised of four medical devices: an inhaler, blood glucose meter, insulin syringe, and a blood pressure oximeter. Jang and Park took on the portable medical device because they noticed a lack of ergonomics and comfort in the antiquated medical devices still on the market today. Each device of Lunit is inspired by the dark side of the moon to be inconspicuous at first glance, laced in smoky black and gray tones and wrapped in translucent coverings reminiscent of evening mist.

Lunit’s inhaler comes in the same familiar shape as traditional inhalers, but a tubelike build with rounded corners and edges gives it a smoother grip and more ergonomic handling shape. The translucent coverings on both ends of the inhaler also work to give it a more obscure look.

Jang and Park reinterpreted the blood glucose meter as a household product that could be taken on the go as easily as the inhaler. The insulin syringe also finds a bit of obscurity through translucent, foggy coverings that conceal the full function of the syringe, giving it a design as discreet as a pen’s. Finally, the blood pressure oximeter is small enough to fit inside your breast or back pocket and comes with all the functions of a traditional oximeter.

Designed to fit inside your pocket, portable medical devices like inhalers and insulin syringes allow users to take care of restricted airways and high blood sugar levels from anywhere, but sometimes the device’s aesthetic design is less user-friendly than their portability. In prioritizing a discreet look for Lunit, the designers hoped to dampen the staring eyes and stigma typically associated with portable medical devices.

Speaking to this, the designers suggest, “When using medical devices outside, users can [become] nervous or uncomfortable because they are worried about what people think about them or their actions. We want to solve [this] through design so that users with underlying diseases can no longer hide and take care of their health with confidence.”

Designers: Sungchae Park and Dayeon Jang

The ribbed, translucent covering of Lunit’s insulin syringe gives it inconspicuous concealment.

When covered, the insulting syringe from Lunit looks like a pen. 

The blood pressure oximeters are adorned with yellow dots similar to a starry night.

Small enough to fit into any pocket, Lunit’s oximeter can be taken anywhere.

The household blood glucose meter looks just like a portable radio.

Equipped with their own carrying case, each device from Lunit is designed to make taking care of yourself look as good as it feels.

This CPR kit is a self-directed, sustainable, low-cost alternative for medical emergencies!

Posted on by




More than 540,000 Chinese people die from sudden cardiac death each year. The survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is less than 1% in China, which is relatively lower than the other countries. CPR is the most helpful and effective implementation to save cardiac arrest victims, but the implementation of CPR is extremely low, only 4.5% in large and medium-sized cities in China, vs 46-73% in Sweden. My thesis focused on providing a flexible and efficient self-directed CPR learning solution to encourage more laypeople to learn and improve their life-saving skills.

From research, some main problems cause this low rate are that: The lay public has less motivation to join a CPR course because of fewer opportunity, fewer interests, high cost, fast-paced lifestyle, and less awareness. The less qualified full-time instructors, short supply and overworked skilled physicians are other significant barriers to teach quality life-saving skills. Besides, the CPR training equipment, such as manikins, is too expensive and the amount of it far limited for this vast population with an old training mode. Even when the public participates in CPR training, there is no consolidation training during post-training and people have less motivation to update their CPR skills.

The outcome is called CANNE, it provides a self-directed CPR learning experience for the lay public and it consists of two parts:
A corrugated cardboard Basic Life Support (BLS) learning kit that allows laypeople to practice CPR, such as cardiac arrest identification, chest compression and ventilation by themselves. The BLS self-directed application on the smartphone can significantly enhance the learning experience by simulating cardiac arrest scenarios and emergency medical services (EMS), providing real-time feedback of compression and ventilation, as well as encouraging lay people to join a final examination and granting an online BLS certificate.

CANNE provides an ecosystem to motivate laypeople to learn CPR at a low cost. It saves time and medical resources and has a minimal requirement for the learning environment. CANNE raises the survival rate of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, particularly in China, by addressing the local societal and cultural needs.

Designer: Shuai Li





This wearable cast revolutionizes healthcare by protecting and healing injuries without sacrificing mobility!

Posted on by

Healthcare is a space that designers are now focusing more on after the pandemic. From portable ICU pods to 3D printed masks and medical devices that monitor health at home, the design community is focusing on creating products that can help the healthcare workers as well as the patients so the burden on the overall system is reduced. 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.

The goal of her design is to investigate the potential of a controlled motion-limiting structure in preventing hyperextension joint injuries. Usually, with injuries, you may have a cast, a brace, or a crepe bandage you use but that restricts movement and also makes the body in that region stiff as you wait to heal. “Mobility is commonly a trade-off with protection and SCALED, therefore, presents a nature-inspired solution for a flexible protective wearable.” It uses a parametric design that allows the structure to meet a wearer’s exact needs and the restriction in motion can be regulated through set parameters.

The design’s name fits the product appropriately – the scales in the wearable are a product of biomimicry. The geometry is inspired by lizards, fish, and pangolins. SCALED gives us an opening into producing mass-customized wearables with interlocking protective scales for controlled motion limitation. “The developed algorithm designs a data-driven, customized, and responsive scale structure according to the user’s specifications. SCALED can be used for injury prevention, rehabilitation, and sports performance enhancement through regulated motion control,” elaborates Kerres. SCALED received funding and is joining the MedTech SuperConnector to be further developed for series production.

Designer: Natalie Kerres

scaled

These innovative jelly encased medicines let you swallow pills without drinking water!

Posted on by

Let’s be honest, it would be a lot more fun to take medicines if they were wrapped in Haribo gummy bears. While it is mainly a problem to get children to swallow tablets, I know many adults too who will go to any lengths to swap their tablets with syrup. This water-free medicine jelly is a life savior for many!

Not only does this medicine design make swallowing easier, but it also addresses the larger problem of access to clean water in poorer countries. Since drinking water is a problem, even if medicines are available, it is harmful to people to be taking them with contaminated water. This innovative jelly medicine is created to be water-free so people don’t have to pick between curing themselves or adding on to existing health risks. The jelly is the same size as a sip of water so the patient wont need to drink anything when taking the medicine. “Poor hygiene and poor water quality are causes of many diseases, including cholera and typhoid fever. When taking medicine in such conditions, there is a risk of acquiring additional illness if the medication is taken with unsanitary water. Jelly medicine eliminates this hygienic problem because it can be easily swallowed without water,” says the designer.

Jelly medicine is individually packaged to minimize air contact and to prevent almost oxidation of nutrients from the moment it comes into contact with oxygen. It also provides customized medicines by individually tailoring the packaging. You can order medicines for specific diseases and age groups instead of having all tablets coming separately and wasting resources. The aim of this water-free jelly medicine is to ensure that people in developing countries do not needlessly suffer from diseases caused by contaminated water.

This design was awarded the iF Talent Design Award and certified as an internationally beneficial design.

Designer: Jeongho Oh, Dongho Choi, and Ryangtak Oh

Shipping containers repurposed into portable ICUs to help health professionals fight Covid-19

Posted on by

The world’s health systems are feeling immense pressure to catch up with Covid-19’s reach and speed. With over 400,000 worldwide cases (and still growing), the contagion is spreading so rapidly that health professionals are worried because facilities are already overflowing. We have already seen many countries like Italy, Spain, and China treating people in corridors, makeshift tents, and on streets by simply laying a sheet because beds are not available. The global community, from designers and startups to big fashion and alcohol brands, has been helping out by using all their resources to support the health system. Italian start-up Isinnova has 3D printed valves for ventilators, New York start-up Air Co. is making carbon-negative hand sanitizers to donate, Kering (Gucci’s parent company) and beer maker BrewDog have offered money and production lines to make items needed for the pandemic. The most important need of the hour, apart from the hope of a vaccine, are hospital beds and especially ICUs. The supply is nowhere close to the demand – the USA has 2.8 beds per 1000 people, while a country like India with a population of 1.3 billion only has 0.5 beds per 1000 people. Because there is no international standard for how many beds a country must have in hospitals, there is a huge disparity and despite Italy having 3.2 beds per 1000 people, which is more than India and the USA, it is still grappling with the reality of only treating those with a higher survival rate due to the lack of resources. These heroes are doing everything they can but due to the absence of adequate infrastructure, their efforts to contain the spread can quickly become futile if the space used is unhygienic, so Italian architects Carlo Ratti and Italo Rota have come up with a solution – Intensive Critical Unit (ICU) pods made from shipping containers!

These ICU pods are called CURA (Connected Units for Respiratory Ailments) which means “cure” in Latin (doesn’t that make you feel a little better?) and these will help take some load off the hospitals, especially in Italy. Ratti’s Studio, Carlo Ratti Associati, and MIT’s Senseable City Lab are creating mobile field hospitals with these CURA Intensive Care pods that serve as a biocontainment unit for two patients at a time. “The aim is that they can be quickly deployed in cities around the world, promptly responding to the shortage of ICU space in hospitals and the spread of the disease,” explained the CURA team as they build the first prototype unit at a hospital in Milan. These units can be set up as fast as tents with the benefit of having hospital-level hygiene which will help contain the infection and especially help those suffering from acute respiratory problems as they need intense care. This will also ensure that the health professionals remain safe while treating the infected who will have a better chance at recovery in the biocontainment units. “Whatever the evolution of this pandemic, it is expected that more ICUs will be needed internationally in the next few months,” says a spokesperson from the CURA team.

The pods can be assembled and disassembled very quickly, and because it is a shipping container, it can be moved from epicenter to epicenter by road, rail, and ship, around the world to address the need for more ICUs. The units are designed in repurposed 6.1-meter-long (approximately 8 feet x 8.5 feet) shipping containers with a ventilation system that generates negative pressure inside – this prevents the contaminated air from escaping thus reducing the risk of infecting health professionals who are more vulnerable because of a shortage of protective gear. This is a common technique used in hospitals and laboratories and the designers have created CURA to comply with Airborne Infection Isolation Rooms (AIIRs) standards. Each of the ICU pods will have all the medical equipment needed to support two coronavirus Covid-19 intensive-care patients at a time. The beautiful part about CURA is that it is modular – each pod could work as a stand-alone unit or multiple pods can be connected with an inflatable structure to create a bigger intensive care center. These were designed keeping in mind that they would be an expansion to existing hospitals by being set-up in their parking area but have the flexibility to be turned into a larger field hospital if needed. “CURA aims to improve the efficiency of existing solutions in the design of field hospitals, tailoring them to the current pandemic,” explained the team who are working hard to do their bit as non-health professionals in supporting those at the frontline of this outbreak.

While we can’t match the contribution of health professionals, the world needs every single person to play their part right now – designers, engineers, creative professionals, manufacturers, start-ups, brands are all called upon to offer any and every service they can to help ease the ache mankind is feeling. And if you don’t have anything to offer, you still have an equally powerful role to play in breaking the exponential transmission chain by simply staying indoors. Let’s flatten the curve, Avengers assemble…in your homes!

Designers: Carlo Ratti Associati with Italo Rota (Design and Innovation), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Design and Innovation), Humanitas Research Hospital (Medical Engineering), Policlinico di Milano (Medical Consultancy), Jacobs (Alberto Riva – Master Planning, design, construction and logistics support services), Studio FM Milano (Visual identity & graphic design), Squint/Opera (Digital media), Alex Neame of Team Rubicon UK (Logistics), Ivan Pavanello of Projema (MEP Engineering), Dr. Maurizio Lanfranco of Ospedale Cottolengo (Medical Consultancy).

A medical device that gives you doctor-free monitoring from top to toe!

Posted on by

I am guilty of going to the doctor for the smallest concern because there is no way for me to analyze what requires immediate attention. I am sure that I am not the only one who Googles symptoms and then descends into panic. It would be so much easier if there was a device like Kala, conceptual health monitoring smart kit that provides a complete non-invasive medical check-up.

A quick look at how much time, money and stress this could save us – 1/5th of doctor’s consultation time is spent on non-medical issues and there are more than 13.5 million GP appointments that do not require medical attention, most of these can be attributed to the human nature of worrying and because there is no other way of ruling out how we feel. Devices like Kala that use existing technology in innovative ways can pave the way to make monitoring devices digital, smaller, non-invasive and most importantly, accessible.

Over 60% of the world’s deaths are caused by heart disease, stroke, cancer, respiratory disease, and diabetes. The first step in diagnosing these ailments requires simple tools like a stethoscope, thermometer, blood pressure pump, and self-glucose monitor – Kala includes all of these and more. It tests lung functions, temperature, blood glucose, blood oxygen, stethoscope, electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure which can reduce panic doctor visits and save time on follow-ups too.

Kala uses artificial intelligence to read and translate data from the device into understandable diagnostics for the user. The smart device is trained to recognize normal and abnormal values – so it cannot diagnose diseases but it can warn you when something does not seem right about your vital statistics. It has been designed keeping in mind that apart from regular check-ups at home it also serves for emergency check-ups, hence the results are in a simple green or amber color for the user to quickly grasp what’s happening and take action if needed. It is crucial in eliminating anxiety while waiting on an appointment date and lets you monitor your health at home which can save many of us from the spiral of overthinking a small allergy or heartburn. It is also a great way to find out if it is a concerning situation and then taking the right call which can also end up saving time in many cases.

One of the coolest features is that it is independent of smartphones and the internet which is a major advantage thanks to the built-in AI but also has the sync-to-your-phone feature to look back at results. If you don’t have a smartphone that is fine too, it includes a built-in thermal printer so you don’t have to rely on any other external factors to do a well-rounded test and keep the results – this is especially helpful in lesser developed regions where users may not have smartphones to sync and track their health data. The parts are made from stainless steel which retains a clean and sterile surface. The rest of the box uses recycled plastic. One of these devices can help an entire community where medical facilities might be scarce, it makes good health accessible to everyone.

Kala is the future of having an efficient and accessible health management system for individuals, communities, and reduce the load on medical facilities.

Designer: Maximos Angelakis