MICHAEL O'BRIEN


MEDICAL DESIGN



Bubble cpap





When babies are born premature their lungs are not quite developed enough to breath properly, hence they suffer from respiratory distress and as a result do not receive enough oxygen. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure or CPAP therapy, supports the airways of preterm and low-birth weight newborns, who can breathe spontaneously but inadequately. This device is innovative, easy to use and maintain, 12 volt or 220 volt, sustainable, 100% useable, and a more cost effective solution for South East Asian and African hospitals. The Dolphin CPAP has been CE certified, adhering to the highest medical safety standards in Europe. These pictures illustrate how the design evolved over a 5 year period; a collaborative Research and

Development process, including workshops with the end user, prototyping, testing, revising and finally certifying.



FIREFLY



Firefly is a cost-effective, intuitive phototherapy device designed to treat newborns with mild to severe jaundice. Firefly was designed by the Boston group “Design That Matters”, it is now manufactured and distributed by MTTS to several countries across South East Asia and Africa. Tasks included: 2D technical drawings, dealing with manufacturers while conducting Design for Manufacture, CAD changes for manufacture and assembly, all related graphic design, and product training conducted in Ghana.



LUMIS



LUMIS is a multi-award winning product, a low-cost battery operated surgical lamp for developing nations. The design is an elegant but a low cost solution to a problem that affects around 2 billion people with out access to electricity. In developing nations, power outages or no access to an electrical grid means hospitals are left without lighting. Throughout rural Africa and Asia, kerosene lamps are often the only light source in a hospital.The image below set in a shipping container shows a rudimentary emergency operating theatre. The only functioning light in the room is a small 12 volt roof mounted, compact fluorescent light. The surgical light in the background, which was donated from a first world nation, sits redundant as there is no access to 240 volts in order to power the halogen bulb.The flat pattern folds into shape and forms a durable structure. The quite complex geometry adversely creates a simplistic product. In order to reduce cost of assembly and transport perforations are stamped along the edges, this way the product can be flat packed and sent in the postal service, then folded into shape by hand. The LED lamps are powered from a 12-volt car battery and a solar panel.



PEEp



PEEP is the acronym for Positive end-expiratory pressure, it’s a crucial component In a CPAP machine - a respiratory support device for premature babies. Its function is to provide backpressure in the system, the pressure is measured in cmH2O, and manually adjusted by the doctor or nurse. An innovative and patented safety feature was designed into the lid that prevents the pressure being changed more that 1cm at a time, reducing the risk of injury to the patients’ lungs. The bottle is 100% re-usable, which means it can be sterilized at 130°C for 500+ patients. The components are blow molded and injection molded in an extremely durable and high temperature resistant plastic.



HUMIDIFIER



A Humidifier is an integral part of a CPAP machine - a respiratory support device for premature babies. Its function is to provide warm humidified air to the baby’s lungs. Compared to other humidifiers it’s quite unique and innovational as it automatically refills for 3-days of continuous operation, while the humidifier chamber only holds small volume of water for a quick start up time. It is 100% reusable and cleanable. Normally hospital equipment like this use one-time-use disposable parts for each patient, which is common practice in affluent societies, however this becomes a problem when hospitals can’t afford or provide the continual supply of consumables for the machine to operate. The individual parts are injection molded with an extremely durable and high temperature resistant plastic, which means it can be sterilized 500 times at a temperature 130°.



michaelobriendesign@gmail.com