The ear screening device designed by IcarusNova
Bengaluru-based medical device design firm IcarusNova had been working on an ear-screening device when they were approached by Medtronic, the world’s largest medical device manufacturer, to formulate a product to address the ear-nose-throat (ENT) space, and the middle-ear infection space in particular, in India. Medtronic wanted not just a product to sell, but also explore how to deliver the service offered by the device.
“Ear infections remain undiagnosed around the country as it is too expensive for ENT specialists to go out to the field. We needed a tool to leverage health workers involved in screening, diagnosis and referrals,” says Ruchika Singhal, vice president, Global Health & Medtronic Labs.
In partnership with the Shroff Hospital in Delhi, they tested 50 prototypes with health care workers travelling to slums and rural areas to collect data. The data and the images were uploaded to a central server so that doctors could suggest the next line of treatment. At this point, in 2014, they sold the intellectual property rights to Medtronic who asked for further changes to bring down manufacturing costs.
The original scope, used in the prototype, was part of an endoscopic machine. With the new brief, IcarusNova re-engineered the product and put it together in a kit.
“What these guys were doing on the ground was so innovative—using their design thinking process and collaborating with the clinical partners to solve a problem. It’s such an interesting model of how to bring new solutions to the market that I am now trying to emulate it in other disease areas,” says Singhal, adding that 3.7 lakh patients have been screened with the device across the country.
Satish GokhaleAge: 57Founder directorDesign Directions Pvt Ltd Other design firms have been providing design capability that brings together products, services, and innovation in health care.
Pune-based Design Directions Pvt Ltd, run by product design veteran Satish Gokhale, for instance, won the Lexus Design Award India in 2018 for their medical scanner iBreastExam. “When we were approached by medical equipment manufacturing firm UE Lifesciences for the design of the breast scanning device, our design challenge was to think about modularity as this device would be serving remote areas and hence would need easy servicing. In addition, they wanted a device that would work for long durations without having to be recharged,” says Gokhale.
In 2017, Design Directions also worked on the MiraCradle Neonate Cooler, a passive cooling device for newborns suffering from birth asphyxia.
In 2013, Balkrishna Mahajan and Nishma Pandit of Ticket Design, won a Red Dot Design award for Etherena, an insertion device for the CopperT 380A contraceptive, designed for Pregna International Limited. The first-of-its-kind Integrated Contraceptive Insertion System allows for an entirely aseptic insertion process, as the physician’s hand touches only the grip area. The product also enables accurate placement of the intra-uterine device as it features an integrated uterine depth scale, thus also reducing the chances of perforation of the uterine wall.
The design of the product and its sub-assemblies was optimised to reduce waste, increase ease of disassembly for repair and part-replacement in remote areas, and eventual recycling.
“India, with its diversity and challenges of access to quality health care, is a vibrant setting for new creative opportunities, especially for the design of affordable health care solutions,” says Gulati, adding that health care ideas that emerge and work well in India also have potential for global application. “The discovery and development of robust, affordable and effective health care solutions is something that needs to be scaled up massively to meet the needs of this underserved sector.”
Design in health care, however, unlike in other areas, needs a lot more research capability and a much stronger support system for technology development, testing, trials, compliance and international certification, all of which take time, experience and funding.
It took IcarusNova two years to develop their ear-testing device, and another year to get through the medical compliance process. To arrive at the first proof of concept of Etherena, Mahajan and Pandit had to create more than 1,000 prototypes of the insertion device. “The product went through a lot of iterations and studies to make it work since this was a completely new idea. Also, as a single use-and-dispose device, we wanted to ensure accuracy and proper functioning. Sterilisation and radiation also had a big impact on the functioning of the device. All this demanded validation and trials at multiple levels,” says Mahajan, for whom the challenge was to design a product that would evoke trust and friendliness, and be easy to manufacture as well.
The private sector, venture capital funds and the government need to identify firms, and independent design and technology teams who have an affinity for the sector and work out mechanisms to invest in ideas that can be rapidly prototyped and validated in close partnership with hospitals, community health networks and research institutions, says Gulati.
The process might result in some failures, but it will seed more capable partnerships and a stronger momentum for health care innovation.
First Published: May 04, 2018, 15:12
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