Medical Product Development - Patient and Consumer

At the end of the day, the patient is everyone's focus. In cases where we’re developing product that medical professionals use to interface directly with patients, product design sensibilities are heightened. Patients are naturally stressed by medical procedures and it's in everyone’s interest to make their experience as pleasant as possible and this should be considered during the medical product development process.

This sensibility drives form development and color and graphic applications as well as interface design. Something as simple as non-threatening forms, relaxing colors or soothing sounds in the medical product can make the overall experience easier. As with other parts of the medical product development process this creates challenges and opportunities in that you have competing audiences and priorities. In most cases a new medical product or technology wants to be pushed to be visual distinctive.

This is expected with consumer and commercial products but gets trickier considering the varied requirements for medical products. The purchasing influencer may want the product to look like the latest and greatest, the clinician wants to be able to intuitively see and feel how the device works and the patient wants to feel at ease with the interaction. Thus the need for iteration during the development process – to test assumptions and fine tune the medical product. In our process we create options for testing and refinement throughout the medical product development process.

Home health and wellness medical product development includes many of the challenges described above as well as those related to developing great consumer products. Devices for consumers need to be easy to understand and use, safe and effective. But unlike most non consumer medical products they must be designed for appeal in traditional retail settings. There is also greater cost pressure on general medical consumer goods versus traditional medical product development projects.

With increased availability of over the counter medical devices and medications, the drive by insurers to push more care giving onto the consumers and demographic trends related to an aging population, it's more important than ever to apply solid medical product development principals and processes to home health products.

We believe that it is important for all products to communicate their use and differentiable features through design but that it is even more important for home medical products to provide clear visual guidance. This is important to ensure appropriate use, storage, disposal, etc. It is also critical to safety and efficacy during the medical product development process.

One good example is pictured on this page. The Isopad™ is an interactive, goal directed, portable isometric exerciser and muscle re-educator. This medical product was developed specifically for osteoarthritis knee therapy. It is used by patients of physical therapists to assist with rehabilitation at home between office visits.

The handheld medical unit steps the user through the isometric exercise regimen programmed by their therapist. The medical product user simply slips the cuff on their ankle and applies force by crossing legs and pressing. The repetition of this low impact exercise over time improves mobility and reduces pain and discomfort.

The problem was to develop a home use medical device that actually encourages patient use. HMO's continue to apply pressure on Physical Therapists to reduce medical office visits so the IsoPad is designed to supplement office care in between visits via home exercise. The medical product development team specifically designed the product for the needs of older patients - since the patient base is typically over 55. As a result use procedures needed to be easy to understand, the interface large enough for legibility and the operation simple enough that the user can concentrate on the exercises, not operating the product. It was important that the ankle cuff could be put on quickly with minimal stretching, strain or confusion.

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