Thanks to this little guy, scientists are finding more efficient ways to stitch people up
Design’s role in medical discoveries is always an exciting topic of conversation, from design experiments like Jake Evill’s 3D-printed cast to DIY solutions like the $15 iPhone hack with the potential to improve 600 million lives. Like the latter, this story begins with the efforts of a group of medical scientists. Through researching various animals that have evolved and mastered the art of staying upright in sticky surfaces (think slugs and flies), they were looking for a more effective medical adhesive that wouldn’t have the same destructive qualities as traditional sutures.
Of course, we’re used to seeing sutures (stitches, in non-technical parlance) in a more traditional, semi-gory Hollywood context—ripping in and out of skin with cringe-worthy zeal—but when you think about it, that can’t be the best option for more delicate fix-ups involving, say, any of our internal organs. Now, a group of scientists have come up with a medical-grade adhesive design straight from nature, inspired by the viscous secretion from the Sandcastle Worm.
Exercise can cause tension and soreness in the leg muscles. Energy Storage Heating Knee Pad stores induction-generated energy during exercise, and releases heat energy to comfort aches and relieve fatigue afterward. See how it works —>
This concept makes use of functional textiles such as electro-thermal isolation yarn as well as the principle of electromagnetic induction. A coil and magnets are placed inside the kneepad to form a small electricity generator. The energy storage device can store induction-generated energy during exercise, and release heat energy to comfort aches and relieve fatigue afterward. The device heats up electro-thermal yarn, which can relax leg muscles after exercise.
A blue light indicates that energy-storage mode is on. A red light indicates heat-release mode. A switch on the kneepad activates the release of electrical energy to relieve muscle soreness after exercising. The most suitable temperature for this hot compress is 50 degrees Celsius or lower. A rechargeable lithium battery saves the energy generated by the coil for heating at a later time.
The materials used to create the kneepad include electro-thermal yarn (which heats up to relieve muscle discomfort when the power is on) and ‘Far Infrared Therapeutic’ fabric. Heat from the latter penetrates the subcutaneous tissues to depths of 4–10cm to promote circulation. A silicone-coated cover on the kneepad protects the central part of the knee with anatomical matching to reduce injuries. Velcro straps allow for easy adjustments.
Designer: Prof. Aqua Chuan-Yu Chen, Chou Yi-Jin
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Human-powered Healing was originally posted on Yanko Design)
Dusk was designed to offer seniors and their families peace of mind when it comes to mind and body. The 2-part system includes a health monitoring band that monitors the wearer’s vitals, reporting stats directly back to loved ones and alerting paramedics in the event of an emergency. For interpersonal support, the 2nd part of the system uses a projector for real time video and photo sharing with family members.
Almost everything is pristinely white inside this dental clinic in Sicily by architecture studio Bureauhub, from the walls and floors to furniture, equipment and staff uniforms (photos by Roland Halbe + slideshow).
Aptly named White Space, the interior was designed by Bureauhub for a pre-existing orthodontic practice located in the city of Catania.
The architects began their renovation by installing a large Corian volume that wraps around several rooms inside the clinic to accommodate a variety of different functions and activities.
It integrates information screens and pull-out coat hooks in the reception area, and also curves down on one side to provide patient seating and magazine storage.
Elsewhere, it accommodates touch screens and remote controls for X-rays and medical information systems, as well as display walls for dental photography and other pin-up items.
“We envisioned an implant concept, based on the typical orthodontic use of high-precision medical devices, as a design principle throughout the space,” explained the architects.
The clinic has a clientele of mostly children, so Bureauhub also installed a piece of custom-designed furniture that combines a desk for writing and drawing with a grotto containing bubble-shaped hiding places.
“We aimed to tickle senses and curiosity, reversing the typical expectations of a waiting area into a self-exploration environment,” said the architects.
A signage system comprising 21 different symbols was developed to aid orientation around the clinic. Each symbol is milled into the Corian at children’s eye level, while a back-lit wall offers a guide to what each one means.
White Space is an private orthodontic clinic for an opinion leader and luminary who is applying and researching most advanced techniques and materials in his discipline.
Design concept
We envisioned an implant concept, based on the typical orthodontic use of high-precision medical devices, as a design principle throughout the space. Interior wall surfaces and furniture merge seamlessly into a continuous white shell of DuPontTM Corian® where cutting edge medical technology are implanted.
The plug-in components are ranging from ergonomic deformations like coat hangers or toothbrush holder folded out of the Corian® cladding up to technical implants like a touch screen and remote button for x-ray control or TV screens for medical information.
Since 80% of the clinic patients are represented by children, we aimed to tickle senses and curiosity, reversing the typical expectations of a waiting area into a self-exploration environment.
Core of the patient lounges is a multifunctional furniture designed ad-hoc to entertain with pedagogical value: on one side three intersecting void spheres form a grotto-like space to be explored by children, while on the other side a surface equipped with niches for pencils and comic strips is dedicated to study and sketching.
Children’s furniture design concept
A playful signage graphic with custom designed icons CNC milled into the white Corian® skin is positioned intentionally at children’s eye level. It refers to the softly glowing backlit graphic panel indicating the spatial organisation of the clinic. Here backlighting is created by pioneer use of OLED lighting modules, next generation sustainable light source produced with organic electroluminescent material that will help reduce CO2 emissions.
Main focus of the futuristic environment is based upon all handcrafted built-in components meticulously designed up to the smallest details and recalling the precision and craftsmanship of orthodontics. Every single detail experiences a subtle spatial presence, accentuating the abstraction and scalelessness of the ephemeral, monochromatic environment in a playful and poetical way.
Project Name: White Space Orthodontic Clinic Architect: bureauhub architecture Location: Via Teseo 13, 95126 Catania, Italy Building Type: Private Orthodontic Clinic Building Area: 220 m2 (NFA) / 257 m2 (GFA) Client: Dr. Davide Agatino Mirabella
Every new year, one of my resolutions is to drink more water… but every year I end up quenching with coffee, soda, juice etc… If you’re like me and actually want to keep your resolution, this twist on the fitness band is exactly what you need! It’s called tH2O and it playfully reminds you to drink up the good stuff while also keeping track of your daily and weekly hydration. Genius!
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Wearable Water Reminder was originally posted on Yanko Design)
News: researchers in Australia have developed a pen to deposit regenerative stem cells onto damaged bone and cartilage in a process similar to 3D printing.
BioPen co-developer Professor Peter Choong, Professor of Surgery at University of Melbourne and Director of Orthopaedics at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne
The device extrudes cell material in a biopolymer such as seaweed extract, combined in the nozzle with a second layer of protective gel, so the surgeon can fill in areas where bone or cartilage is missing by “drawing” across the surface.
In a process similar to 3D printing, the material is deposited in layers. Each layer is exposed to ultraviolet light from a source attached to the pen, hardening the gel so further layers can be added, eventually building a three-dimensional framework.
BioPen
The protective gel gradually degrades as the cells it contains begin to multiply and grow into new tissue to repair the damaged area. An additional polymer layer can be added to increase the structural strength of the material within the wound, while drugs that stimulate cellular growth or aid recovery can also be added to the cell-loaded material.
The key benefit of the handheld technique over the current process of injecting stem cells into the injury site is that surgeons have more control over where to deposit the cell-loaded material and can create customised implants as they work, speeding up the process and reducing the amount of time the patient spends in surgery.
“This type of treatment may be suitable for repairing acutely damaged bone and cartilage, for example from sporting or motor vehicle injuries,” said Professor Peter Choong, BioPen co-developer and director of orthopaedics at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. “Professor Wallace’s research team brings together the science of stem cells and polymer chemistry to help surgeons design and personalise solutions for reconstructing bone and joint defects in real time.”
The researchers at ACES have now passed the BioPen on to Professor Peter Choong, who will head a team working on refining the cell material ahead of clinical trials.
“The combination of materials science and next-generation fabrication technology is creating opportunities that can only be executed through effective collaborations such as this,” said ACES director Professor Gordon Wallace.
Photography is by Mark Newsham from the University of Wollongong.
Here are some more details about the project:
BioPen to rewrite orthopaedic implants surgery
A handheld “bio pen” developed in the labs of the University of Wollongong will allow surgeons to repair damaged and diseased bone material by delivering live cells and growth factors directly to the site of injury, accelerating the regeneration of functional bone and cartilage.
Researchers from the UOW-headquartered Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) have developed the prototype BioPen that will give surgeons greater control over where the materials are deposited while also reducing the time the patient is in surgery.
Delivery of stem cells and/or growth factors into the injury site is currently through injection of a biomaterial carrier.
The BioPen works similarly to 3D printing methods by delivering cell material inside a biopolymer such as alginate, a seaweed extract, protected by a second, outer layer of gel material. The two layers of gel are combined in the pen head as it is extruded onto the bone surface and the surgeon “draws” with the ink to fill in the damaged bone section.
A low powered ultra-violet light source is fixed to the device, allowing for the inks to be cured during dispensing and built up layer-by-layer. Following curing, the shell material will maintain its form, and allow the surgeon to construct a 3D scaffold in the wound site.
The composition of the cell-loaded material also provides greater protection and retention of cells in the wound site and can be surrounded by a polymer core to add structural strength to the surgical site. It can also be seeded with growth factors or other drugs to assist regrowth and recovery.
All components in the implantable material are non toxic and tuned to degrade as the cells begin to populate and remodel the injured bone area. The design of the device allows it to be easily transported and the surgeon can operate with ease and precision in theatre.
The BioPen prototype was designed and built using the 3D printing equipment in the labs at the University of Wollongong and was this week handed over to clinical partners at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, led by Professor Peter Choong, who will work on optimising the cell material for use in clinical trials.
The BioPen will help build on recent work by ACES researchers where they were able to grow new knee cartilage from stem cells on 3D-printed scaffolds to treat cancers, osteoarthritis and traumatic injury.
Professor Peter Choong, Director of Orthopaedics at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and the Sir Hugh Devine Professor of Surgery, University of Melbourne said: “This type of treatment may be suitable for repairing acutely damaged bone and cartilage, for example from sporting or motor vehicle injuries. Professor Wallace’s research team brings together the science of stem cells and polymer chemistry to help surgeons design and personalise solutions for reconstructing bone and joint defects in real time.”
The BioPen will be transferred to St Vincent’s for clinical projects to be carried out at the proposed Aikenhead Centre for Medical Discovery in Melbourne.
“The combination of materials science and next-generation fabrication technology is creating opportunities that can only be executed through effective collaborations such as this,” ACES Director Professor Gordon Wallace said. “What’s more, advances in 3D printing are enabling further hardware innovations in a rapid manner.”
Design expertise and fabrication of the BioPen was supported by the Materials Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility, hosted at the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus.
Amazon Prime made headlines recently with their vision for delivery drone system, but designer Stefan Riegebauer beat them to the punch almost a year ago! The Smart Aid doesn’t focus on shopping deliveries (yet), rather, it aims to provide preliminary medical aid to those in need before paramedics arrive. The unique tri-copter design is also capable of maneuvering to areas unreachable by medic teams. Check out the vid to see how it works!
Everyone loves the beach, especially kids… but parents know that it can be just as dangerous as it is fun! The Harvey Swim Harness app combination now lets parents rest assure that their little ones will be safe playing in the surf. The child’s smart-harness relays GPS and heart rate/breathing vitals to the system which is accessible via parents’ smartphones. Every child wearing a harness is visible to anyone viewing the app, so other parents are alerted anytime a nearby child is in danger to ensure they have the maximum chance of rescue.
– Yanko Design Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world! Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design! (Swim Safe App was originally posted on Yanko Design)
The design was trialled over the past year at a hospital in London and another in Southampton, and PearsonLloyd director Tom Lloyd told Dezeen the results have been overwhelmingly positive: “We were shocked by the fact that there was a 50 percent reduction in the aggressive incidents across the two hospitals after the implementation.”
Photograph by Simon Turner
“For some reason A&E is a space where people feel like they have the right to get angry and start shouting,” said Lloyd. “We thought that by trying to calm the space down and take that away there would be less likelihood of violent incidents.”
Photograph by Simon Turner
In response to a brief from the Design Council and the Department of Health, PearsonLloyd assembled a multidisciplinary team including psychoanalysts, service designers, A&E consultants and social scientists to identify the main reasons why patients become agitated enough to physically or verbally abuse hospital staff.
“A lot of the frustration that leads to anger is just a lack of knowledge and a lack of understanding about how things work,” explained Lloyd. “It’s caused by patients not understanding the clinical language or the process or why someone who arrives after them is seen before them.”
The proposed solution focuses on placing key information in relevant locations within the waiting room and consultation areas so patients are constantly aware of where they are and how long each part of the process might take.
A process map in the waiting room guides patients arriving at A&E through the process, from check-in to assessment, treatment and next steps, and is supplemented by a leaflet with more details.
Vertical panels throughout the department explain the activities that take place in each space and their consistent appearance makes them easily identifiable.
Live information about how busy the department is and predicted waiting times for different assessments are displayed on monitors and the designers have proposed a mobile app that could direct patients to the nearest A&E with the shortest waiting times.
“It’s about providing information and it sounds so simple but we wanted to create something that was cheap because if we’d designed the perfect waiting room, with great chairs and great lighting, then the chances of that being able to be rolled out in any hospital was next to zero,” explained Lloyd.
“We wanted a system that could be retrofitted at very low cost and quite high speed in almost any department in the country.”
The second part of the proposal is a programme that encourages staff to record instances of abuse on a purpose-designed chart so these can be communicated to management and trends identified that could facilitate procedural changes.
“For example, you imagine it’s drunk men on a Friday night who cause most of the problems, whereas it might actually be other people for perfectly legitimate reasons being confused by the system,” explained Lloyd.
PearsonLloyd also developed a set of guidelines that enable the system to be implemented in any existing hospital and provide advice for architects and interior designers developing new healthcare facilities.
Movie: in our next exclusive interview from Inside Festival, Per Anders Borgen of Ratio Architects explains how the design team used raw materials to “remove the institutional look” from the interior of a student facility at St. Olav’s Hospital in Trondheim, Norway.
The outside of the building features a black and white glass facade, designed together with artist Anne Aanerud, which provides shade from the sun as well as decoration.
“Architecture and sunshading form the facade and the expression of the building,” Borgen explains. “That is connected to a very high demand on energy reduction.”
Inside, the architects chose to leave much of the building’s wood and concrete structure exposed.
“Because this is very much a university building, we tried to keep it a little bit rough,” Borgen says. “In hospitals you [usually] have all these clinical, sterile materials. We tried to avoid that.”
“We wanted to use natural wood and concrete. The construction is the interior and that’s part of our concept.”
Patient wards and visitor areas, as well as the student library and cafeteria, feature specially commissioned art works painted on the walls.
“We were trying to remove the institutional look,” Borgen explains. “I don’t think a hospital needs to look like a hospital. That is a convention you can challenge as an architect.”
“It’s very hard because you have all kinds of demands that force you to do something. But [the Knowledge Centre] is an attempt to make a good building with function and good form joined together. It’s not different from every other architectural concept or task in that sense.”
Per Anders Borgen of Ratio Architects. Copyright: Dezeen
This movie was filmed at Inside Festival 2013, which took place at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore from 2 to 4 October. The next Inside Festival will take place at the same venue from 1 to 3 October 2014. Award entries are open February to June 2014.
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Thanks to this little guy, scientists are finding more efficient ways to stitch people up
