Sepsis is a life-threatening medical condition caused by the body’s overwhelming response to an infection, requiring immediate treatment within the first hour. STEA-35 is an innovative early diagnostic and treatment device designed specifically for ambulance paramedics to manage sepsis patients during transport to the hospital. The device includes a diagnostic pen and a disposable cassette, which houses the essential components for blood-cleaning technology. This system enables rapid intervention, significantly improving patient outcomes.
This project was completed as part of the Conceptual Product Solution course during my studies at the Umeå Institute of Design. In this course, we collaborated with the medical company Getinge to explore future possibilities for ICU care. At the start of the course, we conducted research at the central hospital in Umeå and visited five different ICU wards. The wards I visited were Neurosurgery and Infection.
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The idea is to begin treatment as soon as the first responders arrive at the patient’s home. This way, once the patient is diagnosed with sepsis, they can be immediately transported to the hospital while already receiving treatment en route. After conducting desktop research, we explored the technologies related to sepsis treatment. - https://ethz.ch/en/industry/industry/news/data/2021/02/magnetic-blood-purification-to-cure-sepsis.html
In this stage, we started by considering what the context would be like (concept blueprint) after the parametrics had this product. Different scenarios are closely related to the product’s different functional parts. We acted out the scenarios using some cheap materials on hand, then dived into detailed product design. In this stage, we also conducted some ideation workshops.
After sorting out how many functional parts are composed inside, we started from rough mockups and gradually - after several rounds of discussion to settle down the final design concept.
The picture on the right shows how the peristaltic pump functions.At first the pump pumps out the blood, then magnetic beads inserted into blood and bind toxics, magnetic bead are separated from blood, 4 purified blood is pumped back into patient. In this way to clean the patient’s blood on the way. Our concept is to have a disposable ‘cassette’ unit which can be changed after the patient arrived at hospital. The cost is cheap and easily manufactuable. (more related resources: https://wyss.harvard.edu/news/blood-cleansing-biospleen-device-developed-for-sepsis-therapy/)