How might we increase access to diabetic retinal exams while simplifying the experience for healthcare providers and patients?
What it Led to:
Production of a handheld retinal scanner with a full end-to-end experience for the clinician and the patient. Finding, Capturing, Analyzing the results all in one place
Awards:
IDSA People Choice Award and Silver Award
The Team:
2 industrial, 2 UI designers, engineers and marketers
Lead in face-cup design, Assistant in body design
Lead in physical usability research
Assistants in UI workflows and animations
What is Diabetic Retinopathy (DR)?
Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is the leading cause of blindness worldwide.
With an estimated 30 million diabetics in the US alone, 80% of whom will develop DR. It is a major complication of diabetes and has a significant impact on both people's health and the stress on global health systems because of its need of prompt diagnosis.
Patients with diabetes currently need to visit a specialist once a year to see if DR is developing. Catching it early is the only way for treatment.
“cotton spots” that appear, are what specialists will look for in the back of the retina
(Hemorrhages, Abnormal Growth of Blood Vessels and Aneursums)
Approach
Involved in the full design - the initial opportunity area through research and design to manufacturing.
Explore.
What is the opportunity, pain-points, considerations and directions we can dig deeper into.
Make.
To get our ideas across, we broke googles, used tape and paper, molded silicone nose pieces ourselves, and used our phones.
Research.
Brought in nurses into our simulated hospital whenever we could to understand their scenarios and test functionality.
Develop.
Working with engineerings in NY office and Taiwan to push customer needs to make sure the product was the best it could be with viability and feasibility.
- Repeat -
The Humans + Context
Today, once a patient develops diabetes they have to go in for an annual diabetic retinal exam - not only is this addition to their general check-up with their medical practitioner but is another specialist they need to go to. This step is crucial to catching DR, as many as 80% of those with diabetes can catch DR, and early diagnosis is the only way to prevent the patient from losing their eye-sight.
All types of patients walking into the clinic
Context: First, or multiple visitation patients. Usually, to find DR a patient will be sent to an ophthalmologist for further tests.
Goals:
To have an understanding relationship with the doctor
To understand their own treatment and how to recover fast
Minimal steps towards the next phase of recovery
LPN (Licensed Practical Nurses) + RN (Registered Nurses)
Context: Inside Hospitals, Clinics, and Medical Vans (traveling)
Daily Tasks: Multiple rounds to collect patient vitals, basic care, take medical history, transportation, give injections, or administer medication.
Goals:
Quick understanding of equipment due to little time for training
Collect vitals in a quick and efficient manner.
Cleanliness of equipment at all times
Easy communication with patients at all times
Removing anxiety from the patient
Current Market
Today’s machines are large, non-portable devices that tend to require a room dedicated to it in a clinical setting along with the specialist themselves.
Design Challenges
How might we develop a device to remove this extra step and bring positive distription to the journey that our patients have to go through every year.
PHYSICAL
Portability of a Large Handheld Device
Compared to what exists today in automatic devices this device needs to help address the growing number of products that take up counter space in clinician offices and the increase of traveling nurses in moving vehicles.
Long-Term Usage
The testing process though short can be harmful over repeated examples during the day. Ergonomics and material choices became an important choice along with proper procedures in how to conduct the test itself. We’ve tested different grip types, typing and external support systems.
Fit for Everyone
Other than making sure that the device is operational across various skin types, different body conditions are needed to be understood. eg: sensitive skin, bulging eyes, photosensitivity.
made, tested, and iterated multiple designs for the face-cup experimenting with different forms, materials, and methods for alignment.
Comfort vs Stability
Not only does the face cup have to be able to align the device centered on the face, but it also has to be stable as not to move during the process. This brought into question how comfortable can we make this as not to block airways, or irritate the skin over time.
DIGITAL
Proper Alignment
Not only knowing how to approach and align the device correctly but the device needs enough structure not to move too much during the process.
Patient POV
The patient has to keep their pupil stable as they look into the barrel of the camera, and know when the flash from the camera is coming in order to prepare themselves. Small green lighting animations were studied to see best alignment options.
Clinician Flow + Verification
Understanding what is happening at each stage of the device’s function, understanding when a photo taken is good, and when the testing is sent out properly.
Design
Continous body vs handling. Internal design language considerations. Medical constraints (material usage, cleanliness, dust…etc)
Design Choices - Body
- Grooves and thin silicone grip on the sides to help with handling
- Silicone on the bottom to prevent slippage on countertops.
- Screen indented to prevent drop damage.
- Interior - remove as much body material and metal usage to reduce weight.
Design Choices - Face-cup
Hard vs. Soft points for stability, and a supportive frame
- Removable for easy cleaning between patients
(clips and later magnetic in design).
- Added structure (white band to the right) for stability.
- Ergonomics to fit all facial sizes, and skin conditions while preventing light in.
- The barrier, preventing dust and liquids to go into the camera
Design Exploration - Patient Eye Tracker
- Focus point for the patient, to reduce movement
- Animation to communicate time of the test and accuracy of the location
- Warnings to demonstrate when flash occurs
- Signals for camera movement across the face
RetinaVue 700
Recently shown on “America by Design” on CBS
Timestamp - 17:50