Bridge’s views on the future of medical design were featured in an article for this month’s edition of MD&DI Magazine. In the article, President Bill Evans discusses the rise of patient-centric design, using the Stork example we recently featured, and includes a few other important trends we’ve observed.

Evans writes about the use of gaming industry technology to create new ways of guiding surgeons and interventionists to their quarry, with companies like SuperDimension leading the way. He also discusses our prediction that as electronic medical records (EMRs) become more widespread, there will be a greater possibility of smarter devices that will act independently according to the patient’s medical history, in addition to what the sensors are reading.

Click here to read the full article.

This article reflects Bridge’s more general approach to design thinking – we are always on the lookout for general trends in technology that will have a potential impact on medical product design.  Evans recently returned from a trip to the UK and noted a couple of trends in Europe that are slightly ahead of the U.S. that could eventually find their way into medical products.

First, an example with interesting potential in chronic disease management is a new cell phone-enabled technology on sale in the UK by O2 (a large carrier) called the Joggler. It’s a family-oriented “central” organizer (think a touch screen family calendar you keep on the fridge door). It is inexpensive and serves as a way of coordinating family activities by texting reminders to all family members and generally being a place to keep common family information.  It has a large touch screen, is video capable and is rumored to allow third-party apps to run on it.

The Joggler

Imagine the power of this kind of network-connected appliance that is also connected to you personal cell phone or personal healthcare device in the future.  Applications could be created that become a central place for current information about your health to be stored, text reminders could be sent to your cell phone, your doctor could get monthly reports or be notified about exceptional events triggered by readings from your personal monitors.  When more of these personal health monitors (such as BG meters, pill containers, inhalers, etc.) start talking to each other, this could be a boon to managing chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma or COPD, obesity etc. where a combination of monitoring compliance or reporting diagnostics could be more powerfully and transparently coordinated.  No need to worry about inputting it to your computer or even bothering to have an internet connection with difficult-to-set-up WiFi connectivity.  The always-on cell link could look after that.

Another interesting trend noted on the same UK trip was a way of making print advertisements more interactive that could have interesting medical applications.  Some innovative marketers have added 2D bar codes to their print ads that are readable with a regular cell phone camera.  The idea, seen on a Volvo car ad in the Guardian Newspaper, is that users snap an image of the small 2D bar code. Because of a previously-installed generic app, the phone knows where to send the bar code and the cell-phone user then gets a link to a video sent to them by return, in this case a video showing a Volvo ad.

What Bill found interesting about this idea is that if this technology takes off, it could become an interesting way of expanding the way in which people with various conditions monitor and manage their health. For instance, Advair inhaler users are supposed to note the exact day they open their inhaler package and stop using it after 30 days, due to its shelf life once opened. Who actually does this?

Instead, if the packaging had this bar code printed on it the user could just snap a photo and 30 days later, they’d get a text saying it was time to open a new one.  Imagine if all foods began carrying this bar code and it was linked via web site to help you manage calorie intake for dieting or carbohydrate intake for people with diabetes. How many users bother to read those obscure, icon-laden instructions for use (IFUs)?  What if the packaging for that complex device had this 2D barcode: the healthcare professionals could photograph it on their iPhone camera and then immediately see a short IFU video in their local language that shows them in better-animated terms how to correctly use it?

Bill put together a short list of directions for how to do this yourself:

First, download the free “scanbuy” app to your phone (we tested it on an iPhone but it’s also available to many other phones) from http://www.scanlife.com/us/. You must have this app on your phone for it to work.

Next, aim your camera phone at one of the barcodes below on the computer screen. The first bar code will lead your phone web browser to the Bridge Design blog; the second one will lead to a video demonstration of how to use a product we designed, Cleo (you’ll need to click through on the video to run it). The bar code will work from print, computer, and television. Take a picture.

Cleo video 2-D bar code

Bridge 2-D bar code

Did it take you to our website blog, or to the video? The possibilities are enormous — get on with applying it!