Medical machine redesign looks to comfort patients while making technicians' lives a little easier.
by David Mantey
 Maneuverability, space constraints and aesthetics posed great challenges to the 4sight design team. |
When it comes to any hospital experience, not enough stock can be placed in ensuring an experience that offers a patient comfort and peace of mind. While medical equipment serves its purpose determining a patient’s prognosis, and attempts to enhance the patient’s quality of life, the equipment can be over-bearing, intimidating the patient it is built to assist.
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Such situations were top-of-mind as THERAKOS (Exton, PA), a pioneer for more than 20 years in immune cell therapy, strove to redesign the company’s Cellex Photopheresis System to offer a more user- and patient-friendly machine that is used as a therapy to treat immune-mediated diseases such as acute or chronic graft-versus-host disease (in bone marrow transplants that involve transplanted cells from a donor other than the patient) and Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma (a slowly progressive form of cancer).
Throughout the redesign, THERAKOS worked with New York City-based 4sight inc., an innovative product design and development company, to make the product more compact while improving patient interaction and component accessibility.
The result was a more aesthetically pleasing, ergonomic machine that was easier to transport throughout medical facilities.
Heeding The Call
According to 4sight President Stuart Leslie, his company was faced with designing a leaner frame while also integrating several new complex components and circuitry. The major challenge lied in everything from rerouting hoses and tubes, to finding new homes for updated circuit boards.
4sight changed the orientation of the mechanism so the centrifuge door now opens in an up and down sliding motion balanced by a gas spring. The result allows the patient and medical professional to be closer to one another during treatment, a key to keeping the patient’s stress level at a minimum. The proximity also minimizes the chance of technician error.
On earlier models, the touch screen and LCD display would block the eye line between the technician and the patient. This is no longer the case as the design teamed relocated the component and made the feature more adjustable.
The new system also allows the sole operator to customize a patient’s treatment and immediately adjust parameters to respond to changes in the patient’s condition.
Getting To Know You
Prior to developing new design concepts, the team of engineers went out into the field to interview treatment center technicians. According to Leslie, they observed the steps the operators went through with the patients in order to best provide the specifications that would make their lives easier.
Maintaining a close relationship with both the techs and THERAKOS was crucial to the success of the project, according to the company.
As goes the 4sight company creed, understanding the consumer’s needs and perceptions is critical in developing successful products. This is why the company emphasizes consumer research early in development.
 The tube redesign includes optimal fluid and blood volume management as well as automation that allows the nurse to intervene if required ... “Before, the tubes were scattered throughout the machine,” Leslie recalls. “Now, they are routed off the centrifuge and organized more safely.” |
Tube management was another major hurdle. THERAKOS' new closed system reduces the risk for infection and infusion errors.
The tube redesign includes optimal fluid and blood volume management as well as automation that allows the nurse to intervene if required.
During the procedure, the Cellex withdraws whole blood from the patient that is then centrifuged to separate the white blood cells from the red blood cells and plasma. The red blood cells and plasma are immediately pumped back into the patient as the white blood cells are exposed to ultraviolet light by means of a UVA light cartridge, and treated with UVADEX® (methoxsalen), a drug that is used to treat some cutaneous lymphomas and skin disorders. The white blood cells are then returned to the patient after they are treated.
“Before [the redesign], the tubes were scattered throughout the machine,” Leslie recalls. “Now, they are routed off the centrifuge and organized more safely.”
Leslie also adds that the IV bags and tubes that once hung off the sides of the machine are now hung underneath, out of the way, trimming the width of the footprint.
By hanging the bags and tubes underneath, there is also a lesser chance that they will get twisted and block the fluid’s flow. Now, the patient is not only safer, but with THERAKOS’ improved cell separation process, overall treatment time has been cut in half and the amount of whole blood required for the treatment has been lowered.
The original product actually wound up going through so many changes that it toed the line between a product redesign and an entirely new product development.
Easy On The Eyes
Maneuverability, space constraints and aesthetics also posed great challenges to the design team. Their answer: A shorter machine (now under five feet tall) with a smaller footprint that could be easily navigated through grand hospital labyrinths. The Cellex is now more accessible to patients, regardless of their location within the grounds.
Providing the “look” of the latest redesign, 4sight combined simple lines and surfaces with a soft color palette (grey and cream with a splash of purple) to insure it was not intimidating, but still inspired confidence. The strong vertical elements help reinforce the more compact feeling of the unit, appearing to have an even smaller footprint for easy maneuvering around the patient.
The design team evaluated the housing exterior requirements and every internal component. From PC boards and fans to power transformers and electronic sensors, the team analyzed how/if each item could be smaller.
Existing components were rearranged to optimize the layout and different parts were specified if the existing one could be replaced.
To make the product more serviceable, 4sight developed split back panels that can be easily removed. According to Leslie, the main components can be accessed with ease through the rear wall. The former design called for a multitude of disassembly tasks when attempting similar access, including requiring multiple panels to be removed.
4sight’s experienced team of 18 product development specialists included industrial designers and mechanical engineers with diverse international backgrounds.
With an initial European launch in April 2008, THERAKOS submitted the new machine to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June for approval in the United States.