Inventive Medical Devices For Homecare

Long gone are the days when you regularly must show up at your doctor for health services. Ventilators, otoscopes and Co. have been moving away from medical practices and hospitals. These modern medical devices are designed for personal use at home and offer an often simpler path to better health. The benefits are obvious for all participants. Costs and time for hospital visits and readmissions are reduced. Patients take control of their own health and feel more comfortable being in familiar surroundings. And even caregivers make fewer compromises between personal life and the other person’s needs.

Healthcare design is usually associated with images of huge and bulky machines and hospital staff mastering complicated systems of buttons and levers. But there’s another side to designing for medicine and health. At this year’s iF DESIGN AWARD, lots of wearables and items in the category Medicine / Health represent new solutions for home care. Often associated with human-centered design, they focus on helping the person in need – practically and accessible as possible. Designers have understood the shift in preventive health care and management of health. The Coronavirus pandemic pushed this development even further.

Many modern evolutions in medical product design are based on always evolving technology. Wearable devices are among the most significant and trend-setting developments since they focus on convenience and are uncomplicated to use. Just have a look at "Ainos Flora", a portable testing device for vaginal infection, or the home ventilator "LUISA" enabling an active and mobile lifestyle.

Another crucial development is computing and remote home monitoring which allows the cure as well as the preventions of diseases. For instance, the wireless brain and heart monitoring wearable "Seer sense" is designed to help people with epilepsy. "ObeEnd Weight Loss Wristband" is the first of its kind to use smart technology in a bracelet to provide the best possible personal health advice in the fight against rising obesity rates among adults and children worldwide.

The many inventive medical devices of this year’s iF DESIGN AWARD cover a broad range of applications. Take, for example, the iF gold award-winning compression frame "Female brace" addressing teenage girls with pectus carinatum. The "Motion Pillow" device for better sleep is filled with air and automatically changes the sleeping position of the head to prevent snoring. And the hybrid-reality glasses "Stellar" are designed for visually impaired people who already dependent on a cane.

All of these state-of-the-art gadgets show what is possible in modern healthcare design and pave the way for many more applications – not only for the masses in general but also for individuals with specific needs – to provide the best care for everybody.