Medtronic’s Personal Therapy Manager. This is a device based on a Palm Handspring PDA that wirelessly controls a drug infusion system.

Medical Pump - PDA

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Abiomed's AB5000 ventricular-assist device, or VAD, helps patients with weak hearts, but patients must remain in the hospital close to a power source.

By connecting a VAD to the company's new Portable Driver, an 18-pound device featuring new battery technology, a patient using a VAD can be discharged from the hospital, Abiomed said

Abiomed has submitted the Portable Driver to the Food and Drug Administration so the device can be marketed in the United States, but the FDA has asked the company for additional information, Abiomed said.

Abiomed's AB5000 ventricular-assist device - VAD

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Personal digital assistants are old hat to many physicians. But a new generation of mobile technology that integrates handheld devices with software and services honed for the medical mind-set now targets physicians more directly.

One reason for the change is because doctors are more actively involved in product development. Manufacturers consult with them on design elements, and in some cases, the physicians become entrepreneurs and develop products for their peers. Offerings range from hosted messaging systems to portable PCs.

The result is products and services built to accommodate physicians’ need for speed and mobility.

For most new technologies, response time and convenience are central concerns. A physician could spend time driving to a hospital to view a patient’s cerebral angiogram, for example, or view the image on a mobile device from wherever he or she happens to be. In stroke cases, a decision to administer clot-busting tissue plasminogen activator drugs must be made within three hours of the onset of symptoms — a decision physicians could make more quickly if they have the diagnostic test results at their fingertips

Physicians PDA

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Challenged by an open letter that diabetes patient Amy Tenderich wrote to Steve Jobs, the American experience design consultancy Adaptive Path developed Charmr, an experience design concept to project how insulin pumps and glucose meters might work five years from now.

As reported in CNet News, Charmr is “a prototype for a sleeker, more functional blood glucose monitor and an insulin pump that users can apply directly to their bodies as an adhesive.”

“They researched extensively, interviewing diabetics and consulting with Tenderich, a valuable source of information and a link to the diabetes community.

While the Charmr vaguely resembles an iPod Nano, it has an appeal of its own. The device allows users to monitor the trends of their blood sugar levels, as well as administer insulin via a sweat-proof patch. Not to mention, the device allows for wear on the wrists, or as a keychain or necklace–all of which let the device simply appear to be another mysterious gadget, as opposed to a complex medical apparatus. Furthermore, the Charmr will triple as a USB drive that allows users to view daily trends and patterns of their condition, and other special features.”

Interaction designer Alexa Andrzejewski highlights that Charmr is not a product, but a vision of what the diabetic experience could look like in a few years if considered from a user-centered perspective, exemplifying a more human approach to medical device design, i.e. a device that looks and feels like it was designed with people in mind.

As explained by Dan Saffer, they spent three weeks just learning about diabetes and talking to patients and experts, then another week analyzing and taking in all the data they gathered. They spent another two weeks concepting; creating as many ideas as they could around the design principles they’d come up with. Once they narrowed down to an idea, they created the visual and interaction design to really flesh out that concept, then a movie to explain the vision.

Not surprisingly, they were overwhelmed by the positive feedback.

-www.experientia.com-

Charmr

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