Bridge Design

One of the larger trends we are seeing is that some of the thinking behind what makes a great consumer product is finding its way into forming medical products, especially those that are very patient-centric in their use.  Nowhere is this more obvious than in application specific products where we have an opportunity to design for a much more specific group of users, the product can be designed for a much better patient experience without the need to be all-things to all users like many of the general medical products out there.  To give an example of this trend and be able to show it now the Bridge ID team designed our interpretation of what an ultrasound device could be like in the near future.  Our press release below.

San Francisco – April 6, 2009 – Bridge Design, Inc. - Portability is the fastest growing segment in the ultrasound market. Imagine fast-forwarding a few years when technology becomes less expensive and more powerful and compact. What would a birthing-specific ultrasound, designed specifically for the mother–to-be, look like?San Francisco-based Bridge Design has come up with an innovative, mother-centric device that focuses on making the ultrasound experience pleasant and hassle-free. The Stork provides a number of features not yet on the market, including a second display so the mother won’t have to strain her neck to look at the screen. It also allows the mother to email electronic images directly to family and friends from the device instead of receiving paper printouts. Unlike the average ultrasound machine, the Stork is unintimidating, even playful, with a flip screen and basket-like portability which contains “cup holders” for probe and gel. The Stork’s color, materials, and finishes forgo the clinical white and gray palette for a much more soothing birthing experience.Bridge’s Director of Industrial Design, Matt Presta, who also happens to be a parent, explains:“Any mother who has had an ultrasound is familiar with the cart of equipment, probes, gels, screens, printouts, and everything else that comes with it. And although the experience is necessary for clinical reasons, many parents just want to see their baby. For years, Bridge has observed trends clearly pointing towards designing for the patient’s experience. Since we’re still a few years away from seeing the tipping point of the patient-centric trend in health care, we wanted to provide a glimpse into the future based on what we’re seeing happening in the industry.”It’s worth noting that although this device has not yet been manufactured it reflects a trend that Bridge sees growing, with more application-specific medical products likely to appear at healthcare facilities in the not-too-distant future. “As a given technology matures, its cost and size typically shrinks. This opens up exciting possibilities to those forward-thinking medical equipment manufacturers who understand that if you change your design thinking to be more user and patient-centric, then new market opportunities can be created. Addressing baseline functionality and reliability at low cost is not enough to stay ahead of the game in mature markets,” says Presta.

A description of services can be found at http://www.bridgedesign.com.  SOURCE Bridge Design, Inc.  Contact Matt Presta of Bridge Design, Inc. +1-415-487-7100, ext 300, mpresta@bridgedesign.com

Bridge collaborated with Smiths Medical to create the next generation of Smiths' flagship ambulatory pain management pump. The CADD-Solis pump is designed to deliver pain management drugs safely and effectively. Click here to visit Smiths' website.

The project was the result of researching the needs of each set of stakeholders who contribute to pain medication delivery, from hospital risk managers, to pharmacists, to the doctors and nurses who program the pumps. Bridge's role focused on the design research, user interface concepts, GUI graphics and industrial design of the pump itself.

CADD-Solis: Improved Features

Three main new user features were created for CADD-Solis:

1. The pump's user interface is designed to reduce medication errors as well as greatly simplify and shorten the time it takes to set up a new patient and modify pump settings. The UI is simple, intuitive, and task-oriented. The on-screen graphics are designed to help make it informative at a glance and provide tools for clinical assessment.
2. The improved remote dose cord is ergonomically designed to sit much more comfortably in the hand of a potentially sleepy patient. It also offers greater ease-of-use for those patients who cannot comfortably use their hands.
3. The medication cassette can now be changed using only one hand, instead of two hands as was previously required.

How CADD-Solis Works

The CADD-Solis system provides a framework that is customized by the hospital. Using PC-based CADD-Solis Medication Safety Software, the hospital creates a customized library of therapy protocols. A therapy might be named by route of delivery, further defined by a qualifier such as patient age and condition, and finally associated with the drugs selected for the protocol. The therapy protocol library is downloaded to all the CADD-Solis pumps in the hospital. The pump user now has a simple and effective way to administer medication.

To set up a patient for drug delivery, the user steps through a sequence of three questions. Only a limited set of safe choices are available at each step during programming, based on the therapy protocol selected. Once a protocol is selected, the user can adjust delivery parameters only within predetermined safe limits. Click here to visit Smiths Medical's website.