with designers and engineers to understand living with a medical condition. We
use mapping techniques to understand the
complexity of therapies in terms of physical requirements, the process journey and
the emotional aspects of how the condition and therapy impact patients’ lives. We
now talk to all the stakeholders along the
journey to understand their touch points
and needs at each interaction. We are
looking for opportunities to improve the
experience of the whole journey from dispatch to disposal to deliver solutions that
go well beyond the product. Our trends
analysts compare research insights against
macro trends to understand what could
drive change in the needs identified in the
research by the intended launch date. The
aim of all of this is to identify real needs
and find innovative technically and commercially feasible holistic solutions.
The Merck Serono easypod (www.
merckserono.net) employed this process
(Figure 1). It is a sophisticated electro-medical device used for self injection of
growth hormone therapy. The identification of real needs came from research with
families living with the condition and
with clinician stakeholders involved in the
prescription, training and monitoring. The
approach has been highly successful.
As in medical science, technology has
transformed the
design and devel-
opment process
in recent years.
Advances in com-
puter aided design
(CAD) and simu-
lation tools have
greatly contributed
to designers’ and
engineers’ ability
to resolve problems
and develop robust
designs. Rapid pro-
totyping materials
and technologies
have also helped
us realise solutions
in even shorter
timeframes.
this technology push or needs pull? We
know technology can eventually enable us
to do anything we want. The question we
(at PDD) are always trying to answer is:
What is the need, and what will add maximum value for the end user? It is in this
area that the design industry has developed significantly over the past 20 years.
User empathy
In the past, companies would come to design
consultancies with a brief to design a product. Now they come to us with much more
open challenges: How do we create brand
loyalty for a drug that is about to come off
patent, or how can we add value in a price-sensitive commodity market?
Twenty years ago, designers and
engineers would enthusiastically visit
a few end users to try and understand
the context of use—the process—and to
empathise with users. I remember wearing a water-filled colostomy bag for a
week to try and understand the challenges patients faced, and this was greatly
appreciated by the user focus group when
I presented concepts in response to the
experience. Now, understanding the
challenge is considerably more scientific.
PDD’s human sciences team made up of
anthropologists, behavioural researchers
and human factors engineers work closely
FIGURE 1: The easypod humanises technology for the administration of growth
hormone therapy.
emdt.co.uk European Medical Device Technology
June 2010 | 47
