Brief

Redesign an orthopedic plaster cast which balances functional medical requirements and the human patient experience using empathetic product design.

Monash University

Approach

• Discover
  • Experience immersion
  • Literature review
• Define
  • Product strategy
  • Product conceptualisation
  • Idealised Application, process + usage
• Develop
  • Proof of concept
  • Aesthetic development
• Deploy
  • Capstone presentations
  • Engineering thesis + aviva
  • Industrial Design showcase

Background

Orthopedic casts have remained conceptually similar for over a century, yet it remains a universally displeasurable experience for injured people and the wider community.

• Doctor interviews
• Patient interviews
  (currently injured + previously injured)

• Literature reviews
• Experience immersion

(I voluntarily put my left arm in a plaster cast for a week to understand what it is like to wear a cast)

Cast application / Removal

• 20 minute application time compounded by soreness needs to be reduced/optimised.
• Cast hardening time (up to 24 hrs) is mentally burdensome
• Removal of cast requires use of oscillating saw – which is an overly intimidating experience.

Geometries and practicalities

• Repeated contact with sharp corners caused swelling, chaffing and nerve irritation.
• Holding and interacting with everyday items was made difficult
• Cast immobilisation remains the same at the end stage of healing process where some mobility can be allowed

Psychological torment

• “Everyone’s looking at me.. even the strangers are judging me” – wearing a cast feels irrationally and excessively encumbered.
• “I just need a break from this cast” – evenings of mentally excruciating psychological stress as you’re ‘trapped in the cast’.
• “Some cracks are starting to appear” – having to take care of the plaster itself, not your arm, is extra psychological burden.

Functional requirements

Maintain effectiveness of immobility

Allow good environmental and operational resilience

Increase Hygiene

Reduce bulk and mass

Reduce Interference

Doctor/ Patient Interaction

Adapt for the healing process

Allow easy application and reduce setting time

Allow easy removal

Patient Perception

Increase dignity

Allow graffiti

Product Lifecycle

Adapt for the healing

Allow good environmental impact

Product USPs

• Lightweight, waterproof and resilient
• Fast application and removal
• Aesthetically distinctive
• Empathetic to interacting with daily objects
• Adjustable / temporarily removable

Hard Exoskeleton

Injection moulded polycarbonate
Optimised for light weight and impact resistance
Appealing aesthetic design to alleviate perceptual problems

Personalised “insert” cast

Engineered non-woven liner with two-part polyurethane foam
Personalised fit and
breathable design

Drastically reduced application time

Chemical reaction expansion complete within 10 minutes
Full strength within 30 minutes

“Hands off” application

Chemical expansion process removes need for doctor to move and manoeuvre patient’s arm, reducing discomfort and stress

Drastically reduced application time

Cast is ‘locked’ by physician until patient has received proper care instruction to ‘open’ cast
Allow the patient to expose limb carefully to tend to skin and relieve from mental stress

Proof of Concept

Insert Cast prototyping

Exoskeleton prototyping

Aesthestic Development