Hartwell Medical LLC

Objective:

Explore and improve Hartwell’s current cervical vacuum neck splint that is secure, comfortable and simple to use for EMT’s during emergency situations where patients are in need of cervical stabilization.

Design constraints include utilizing Hartwell’s vacuum pump bead system including vinyl material, polystyrene beads and simple values. cost, universality/adjustability, comfort, portability and size.

Role: Lead Designer/Project Duration: 6 weeks

Initial concept by Hartwell's team:

Although this prototype was simple and easy to use and provided access to the patient’s neck, it did not immobilize the head.

For this project, we explored “fail fast forward” method to explore the material, gain a better understand of the user needs and finally iterating on prototypes after prototypes.

We proposed 4 concepts to received feedback from our clients.

HYBRID was chosen as it provided the best in class cervical stability.

Key Takeaways.

1) Channels are necessary to keep the beads at minimum while providing maximum stability

2) Ridged collar provides placement familiarity while providing stable opening to the trachea.

3) Using the chin as an anchor provides the best universal fit while providing maximum comfort.