kyrabanko

[kyrabanko]

Week 7

Injury & Dependency in Home Healthcare

Intent Statement: By developing ways to ease the mental and physical stresses put on the friends and families forced into a carer situation, my intent is to help the carers that help those recovering from a temporary injury to make the rehab and recovery as effective and easy as possible.

What are you doing? I want to target the unseen areas that the people around a temporarily injured patient have to deal with.

Why are you doing it? A person is sometimes put in a carer situation without having the choice, so finding ways to help them adjust is valuable.

For whom? I want to highlight the relationship between patient and caregiver in order to comfortably make the recovery as easy and efficient as possible for both parties.

After talking with Jackie Snyder, my interviewee, I learned a little but about what the medical industry is like and some expectations. One of the most important things in designing and making a medical product is ensuring that the company is in compliance with the regulations. As a contract engineer and over 30 years of experience working for EUMDR, Honeywell and Medtronic, she currently works in prosthetics and has for 10 years now. Part of her job she gets to work with orthopedic doctors as part of her field research. Something surprising she mentioned was the fact that people need treatment before they even know it. After Jackie thoroughly described her job and what she does on a daily basis, these were my takeaways. 

working as a quality engineer/product itself

working on improving the product

spend a lot of money making the design,

always help improving the product

After talking with some classmates in my breakout group, I started thinking of some more interesting directions I could possibly go in with this project. One suggestion was looking into 3D printed products which got my wheels turning. It made me think about how somebody with a broken bone who is in a cast has a really difficult time keeping the affected area dry, as well as keeping it clean because being in a cast limits the space from skin to casting. I have a friend who recently broke their femur bone, which requires a spica cast (full body cast). I know several people who have broke their legs, arms, etc. The carer helping the patient most likely has a hard time cleaning the patient without getting the cast wet, especially in a severe scenario. After breaking my arm last summer and being in a cast, I was frustrated because I couldn't clean underneath my cast since I could not reach, I couldn’t keep it smelling pleasant and I couldn’t scratch spots that were itchy, all of which drove my frustration even more. If there was a way to make waterproof casts that you could bath with and would dry up if gotten wet, that would solve a big problem. This would make things a lot less stressful for the caregiver. 

Another suggestion was to think about where surgery will go in the future, especially with the increase of 3D printing in the medical field. Things like 3D printed bones and synthetic ligaments are already being tested, so this made me realize I should think more about the future of medical.

Another direction I recently thought of while continuing my research was the relationship between the psychological and physical effects of injuries and how the devices used in treating an injury can affect you physically and mentally. It could be more severe for some people but there is a big psychological side that people either don’t know about or don’t see. 

[kyrabanko]

Week 5&6 Research

By developing ways to ease the mental and physical stresses put on the friends and families forced into a carer situation, my intent is to help the carers that help those recovering from an illness / injury to make the rehab and recovery as effective and easy at home as it would be in a licensed canter.

When a family is affected by a crisis, everyone in the family will act a different way. As someone who has been injured a lot, you don’t really think about the fact that whoever is taking care of you is sacrificing something out of their life to help you. The family / caregiver has to deal with all the physical issues plus the emotional stress you are under. After reading an article about trauma and families, many families say that in the end the crises actually bring them closer and stronger. Family members are noted to generally fear of another distressing experience to happen that may affect family life. In a worst case, a severe trauma will create a domino affect of some things that build up and things happening after the fact.

When recovering from a major health procedure / condition, having the right support in a recovery is crucial. Depending on the surgery, there are many side affects relating to physical mobility challenges, emotional impact, and psychological impact. Being alone / lonely can have serious health consequences so having somebody there to help you most of the time might be a challenge but will make all the difference. Technology makes it a lot easier today to connect to people, talk to people, stay entertained, etc. This is a long recovery process, typically between a 6-8 month span for the average knee injury. There will be restrictions in the activities you can do after a surgery.

As a caregiver myself, aiding an elder person, I see common themes when I am helping her that correlate to this topic of injury rehab. You have to adapt to that specific person’s needs. Although she does not have a physical disability regarding movement, there are still many ways I have to help her. For example, she is blind in one eye so she only has central vision, no peripheral. I may not have to help her physically but there are so many other ways of doing so. It takes a while to figure out what the subject likes, what helps them and what their purpose of having you as a caregiver is.

After any type of surgery, you are dependent on doctors and nurses  - that’s the first challenge. Convalescing at home and being alone is not a positive experience. There might be people there to help you but don’t know how to. It takes compassion, desire to help and strength depending on the injury. There is a good amount of pressure on the people that are trying to take care of you. They are forced to take over once the doctors/nurses release you. This can last for days, weeks and months. As a patient you tend to feel bad because those people are forced to help you and 99% of the time they are not medically licensed to help you, but there isn’t really another choice.

I had an appointment with my orthopedic doctor yesterday and he provided some good insight for me. He talked me through a couple different devices that he recommends for a knee injury and explained why he likes certain features over others. I briefly explained my intent for having a product that solves my specific issue. He thought it was a good idea, and recommended me maybe focus on the caregiver / patient relationship during the recovery process instead of just the caregiver, because ultimately it is a product for the patient that helps the caregiver. He thinks the concept would be a good fit for the recovery room at surgery centers / hospitals. We both agreed the product idea still has the opportunity to be stronger. (even though I’m trying not to focus on the product idea first).

I have an interview scheduled this weekend with a friend’s mom who is a contract engineer / six sigma black belt engineer for a medical device company. She has over 30 years of experience by starting out with pacemaker products and working now in prosthetics. I also have some friends in kinesiology / sports medical majors and athletes I think would be good to ask some questions to.

Questions / Problems I am trying to solve -

What are the challenges caregivers are faced with while providing care?

Is there a way to take some of the stress off the caregiver while they are aiding their patient?

How can we make caregivers less stressed out when providing service to a patient, without always being afraid to hurt them?

I am struggling coming up with more questions regarding this problem.

[kyrabanko]

Week 4

Part 1:

a. I have excluded the aviation topic from this project because I have a solid project based on this topic in my capstone class. I think the three remaining topics can crossover somehow, some more than the other. I think there is a big challenge of thinking out of the box on things that we already know about because we only see from our perspective. But I have found it useful talking to other people who don’t know much about the subject because of the new perspectives.

b. At this point I am narrowing down to the sports injury/medical products because with the help others, I came up with a different approach to help me figure it out. I want to target the unseen areas that the people around an injured patient (specifically knee surgery) have to deal with. What products can I design that not only make the patient more comfortable but make the caregiver’s life easier in helping the patient recover. I also think there is opportunity in researching the connection between psychological and physical after an injury.

c. A lot of my research was done watching videos and reading articles of extreme users as well as specific examples of caregivers and other family members providing assistance. I also found it interesting watching interviews with orthopedic doctors talk about knee injuries and what makes them keep occurring. I read an article suggesting that the US needs paid family leave which was really interesting to me. I think that if/when the country starts opening back up after the pandemic, it will be very stressful for anyone living at home under some sort of caregiver to handle the fact that they are not there. Some examples include kids, pets, physically and mentally impaired people that rely on somebody to help them people. Times are changing and I think majority of jobs will stay online, if they haven’t switched already. Sometimes you take everything your parents do for you, for granted. In terms of injury and being temporarily disabled, there is no other choice but to have a family member give the patient all the care, even if it means giving them no other option but to sacrifice things in their schedule to help them. 

Part 2:

Adjacent Phenomena

a . The 2020 NFL season started about 4 weeks ago and 2 weeks into the season there was a total count of 19 ACL injuries. After listening to my parents’ insight and interviews with other players’ coaches, parents and other teammates, the ACL tear is something that used to not be as apparent as it is today. My physical therapist who I have been working with for the past year mentioned to me that they’ve had more patients in the past 4 years than ever before regarding knee injuries. There are social media recovery accounts the provide free motivation for anyone who is injured and going through the recovery process. I do think there is a lot of connection between the psychological and physical aspects of an injury, which is also something that interested me about this topic. As someone who has had at least one knee surgery in the past 4 years alone and observed people in physical therapy for just as long, I have seen the newest versions of braces come out every couple of months. What I have noticed is that the design has been changing to a more user experienced based product that always somehow involves technology. I have been researching some different product design conventions, specifically looking at all different kinds of medical products. I was shocked to see many companies focus on artificial knees, including the ligaments and bones made out of hard plastics, rope material, wire, etc. that actually give quite a bit of motion.

b . The people that are operating in and adjacent to this topic area are the people that border injury to the musculoskeletal system. Some of these people include; orthopedic doctors, rehab specialists, prosthetic doctors / patients, doping by athletic competitors, robotics specialists. Doctors typically write about this topic more frequently in articles, essays, medical journals, etc. They are the primary leaders of sports medicine.

Some videos I found interesting: 

Child who broke his leg & his family helping him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXQIb8lromA&t=300s

Born different - extreme user: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMDcmzUDPjI

An intimate look at the life of a young caregiver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Txot1wGJkQ

What it’s like to take care of multiple family members at age 15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puwI1tROvkQ

The US needs paid family leave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdQ1eaZH-J8

Stories from a home for terminally ill children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlUPlxSpDRo

[kyrabanko]

Week 3 Research Methods

Day In the Life / Shadowing / Video Diary - 

For whatever topic is chosen, I think this research method is one of the more important. First hand observation is critical because it gives the researcher a clear idea in detail of what that person does on a day to day basis. From that we can form opinions and take away information directly from them based on what we see them do. Recording the behavior as a primary resource will help provide some good takeaways. 

Interview - 

Some of the topics would benefit most out of an interview because of the information spoken by multiple people with different viewpoints. I learned that it is important to interview people who don’t know much about the subject because they provide insight as well as questions when they don’t know a lot about something. That might even lead us, the interviewer into a direction we hadn’t thought of. Taking the outliers and experts of one subject matter to come up with ideas that meet in the middle is valuable. 

Provocation - 

Just like the interview research method, some topics might benefit more with provocation than any other approach. There are two different ways I would go about this. 1. Having prototypes in the user space and allowing them to observe it, try it out and question it, without any knowledge of what it is, gives valuable takeaways regarding initial interaction, if the product looks/feels/acts like what it should be, etc. 2. Providing the user with information about the prototype then asking them questions about it, having them test it, etc. will also develop insightful material and generate more ideas. 

In aviation, it is difficult to shadow a commercial pilot due to regulations and limitations. But there are better chances at small private airports, and of other course personal connections that can lead you to other opportunities. I think right now during everything that’s going on, the most beneficial “day in the life” will come from watching videos of the life of pilots, what they have to do before each flight, etc. This won’t necessarily help bring the gender difference topic to light but it will give a better picture of what it takes to be a pilot in general, and maybe from there I can form an opinion as to why it’s just not so attractive industry for women. Interviews as a research method with this topic will be helpful in taking away useful information directly from the source. In this case, interviewing a pilot would be most beneficial, but so might interviewing a flight attendant or office manager at a private airport. Even though they aren’t pilots they still work in that sector and have different insights. 

With the sports product topic, it would be essential to shadow an athlete by observing/recording their actions throughout one day. It would also be good to interview not only an athlete, but one who doesn’t know anything about it because again, they might come up with ideas that are so different than anything that was thought of to begin with.

In world health generally speaking, I think interviewing people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, etc. is necessary, especially in ideas for universally designed products. To target more specific consumer groups, interviewing a focused group would better suited. Provocation would be a great research method for this topic because prototypes can be placed in public areas depending on the product such as parks, doctors offices, etc. for user interaction. Who comes to these areas and why? What are they expecting to see? Empathy is important in world health, no matter what specific branch you break off into.

The art of crafting something would fall under many different research methods. Shadowing a craftsman would be useful because this specific person hand makes products and has their own process of doing so, that may or may not be different than something that is manufactured. Interviewing the craftsman and asking more focused questions would help gain more specific insight. Ex: Why do you prefer hand crafted over manufactured? How did you learn this process of making and why is it valuable to you? Making prototypes could possibly fit in this category depending on what the product is that is being made. It is always important to have a user test out the product, even if the project is custom to one person.

[kyrabanko]

Week 2

Interest Questions

Aviation

By 2018, the demand for air travel was at an all time high although there is a national shortage of airline pilots. And yet only under 5% of pilots are female. I don’t consider myself a feminist but what is the deciding hiring factor between two different genders who in some instances, have the same credentials, experience, hours, etc.?

We live in an era where there are multiple different genders. With the traditional gender disparity in industries now (between male and female), how will that change with the multiple gendered society that we live in today?

In general, female leaders face many challenges including bias, assumptions about women’s interests and capabilities. What actions will companies in male dominant industries take in order to accept having women in leadership roles?

Sports

In what ways can I use my own personal experiences with injury to design medical related products in the eye of the consumer? 

If I was a professional designer in this market, would I have to stick to that specific niche or could broaden my interests and design for the sports market in general? - this might sound like a bad question and maybe it is not quite asked the right way but I’m not sure what limits companies have on things like this , if there are any. 

If one were to design products in this field, how would they determine how much effort should be used by the user? What are the most important design  requirements in these kinds of products? If it is a complex mechanism, would it be fairly easy to use?

World Health

When a designer wants to create a product to help somebody in some way, they can’t necessarily design something for everybody in the world to relate to. What approaches to solving problems like these through design can one take in order to find the right products to design? Is there even a “right design?”

Crafting/Making

In a field where industrial design is very relevant but you have many designers that enjoy hand crafting a product, I often wonder if the two categories of products can be somehow combined somehow? Would that change the fact that it’s either a manufactured product or hand crafted?

There is more access to handmade products now in the last century than ever before. How can an artist/designer make a name for themself/living making these kinds of products, plus the time it takes to make it?

As someone who is passionate about the process of creation but not necessarily considered a much sustainable designer, I’m curious to know what people take more as a priority, hand crafted products or a sustainable ones?

Is it more preferred to have a specific niche market/target audience when designing/hand crafting products than someone who enjoys making products in all different product categories? What if the person designing/making gets tired of making the same craft?

[kyrabanko]

Week 1

Interest Topics

Aviation/Automotive

I am drawn to a lot of different things, but for some odd reason, most of those professions involve male dominated industries. For years I have wanted to be a pilot and since I am currently in the process of getting my license, I want to incorporate that into my career somehow someway. There’s a lot I want to accomplish but I struggle to find ways to incorporate my interests into design. Fishing is another one of my passions but it’s challenging to see the design opportunities in that right now. 

After seeing thousands of car restoration shows and watching my dad and brothers fix up their old cars, I realized I wanted to also invest time into customizing cars for the female because that is something that you don’t see too often.

Sports

My whole life I grew up playing/watching sports and the idea of it is something I’m not ready to give up yet. Going through a dozen sports related surgeries I started seeking interest in medical products, injury devices, etc. As an athlete who has been through so much physically, I have always wanted to use my experience to help make someone else’s sports/physical career easier and safer. 

World Health

Being in a pandemic has made me see the world a tad bit differently. For the longest time, I just wanted to design and make “cool things” because I love aesthetics. I have been looking on the more practical side of things and investing more time trying to think about things that will help people all over the world and not just cool things to put on display. 

Crafting/Making

If someone were to ask me what kind of designer I am, I would have a whole lot of different answers. I realized that’s because I am multi-skilled and don’t have a particular interest in one thing. I love the art of hand making things and having one of a kind/custom “things.” Whether that is not so much practical, it’s something I really enjoy doing.