General Sensing | Medical Design to improve compliance

Case Study about a multi-part product development in the hospital sector by the example of the hand-hygiene system of the startup company General Sensing.

hand hygiene traceability system

New shapes for hand hygiene in healthcare

Challenge

Modern health care continues to face challenges for staff and facility environment-related infections among patients. A World Health Organization study shows that an average of only 40% of the health care workers correctly follow hand hygiene procedures resulting in complicated infections and sometime death. General Sensing, our client, was founded in 2005 to commercialize a new technology that provides monitoring that can track and improve hand hygiene via the MedSense product. This privately held Hong Kong company needed help with developing a user friendly and intuitive product design for their technology, which would comply with design for manufacturing.

Approach

Focus groups and interviews with nurses and doctors at the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong (one of the selected institutions for the clinical trials of the technology) allowed WILDDESIGN to conduct market research, identifying daily challenges and routines for health care workers. These insights helped us define certain criteria for the product design and user interface. Along with needing all products in the family (Badge, Beacon, Dispense Monitor and Base) to be easy to clean and light to wear, the design for manufacturing had to take inside technology in consideration. By using form language and color definition WILDDESIGN made sure to incorporate these needs.

Another important development of the project was the MedSense User Interface. Having to wear the Badge and interact with three other devices numerous times each day, market research showed it was important that healthcare workers fully understood the human-machine interaction without having to rely on a user manual. A communication system of subtle blue LEDs, which blink or remain lit to indicate power status, interaction, or any malfunction, was designed. The blue color LEDs and logo-shaped lens were a chosen direction to avoid overbranding, while including the brand’s logo design naturally in the interface.

Results

The sleek, light, and easy to clean design of MedSense ensures a user-friendly product family where each component fits seamlessly within healthcare workers’ daily routines in the hospital environment. Easy and straightforward installation and maintenance were also integrated in the product design, which makes only the smallest impact on existing hospital operations. Final trials are currently taking place, with a commercial release expected before the end of 2012.