MRes Healthcare & Design (MRes)
Blanca Rivera Fernandez
Each surgeon has a unique style of approaching surgery, just as every painter has a unique brushstroke. Therefore, the scar can be understood as the artist’s signature on the canvas of the human body.
New surgical training models must emerge to support the acquisition of advanced surgical skills, without posing a risk for the patient. In this way, surgery would be able to adapt to the demands of healthcare, as well as to adopt new technology more easily, efficiently, and safely.
Dedalyx responds to the need to adopt well-established surgical curricula to the current demand, using the latest cutting-edge technological resources.
What is Dedalyx?
Dedalyx is a new training experience to develop motor surgical skills. This project seeks to democratize surgical training opportunities, connect professionals worldwide, expedite de adoption of new surgical devices and procedures and finally, offer a tool to practice outside the OR without jeopardizing the patient's health. Dedalyx is composed by a motion-tracking device -called thimbles- and an online training platform.
How does it work?
The thimbles are skin-like devices capable of tracking the finger’s movement and measuring applied forces without interfering with the precise work of surgeons. Such data is later uploaded to the online platform, processed and certified by a panel of experts. As a result, a wide variety of exercises and surgical procedures from surgeons worldwide can be practised anywhere and anytime through a device with Internet access.
By using the thimbles, the trainee can mimic the surgeon’s hands movements unlimited times while receiving real-time feedback. This fact allows the user to know where and how to improve the movements to avoid tissue damage, for instance.
To know more details about the project, please scroll down!
Instagram: @dedalyx
Hello! My name is Blanca. I am a product and service designer focused on research in healthcare.
I gained my BA Comprehensive Design and Image Management at the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, Spain. Since then, I have been working on a variety of transversal projects in such different areas as product, space and graphic design. I have collaborated with several startups with whom I have acquired great knowledge of the complete process of developing a product or service. I hope to be able to put such knowledge on practice to market my own inventions.
During the last two years studying the MRes Healthcare & Design, I have developed a passion for the areas of surgery, ergonomics, cognitive learning, robotic and wearables. The programme has strengthened my skills in carrying out design research projects using different methods and methodologies, especially those focused on Human-Centred Design, Design Thinking and Participatory Design.
This project has allowed me to win the British Spanish Society award this year. Previously, I was selected to exhibit at the 7th Biennial Latin American of Design (BID) for my previous project -'Ayra', a pulse-oximeter for chronic respiratory patients.
The main driver of my work is to achieve design interactions that help people to live better, improve their experience when taking care of their health, and encourage health providers to enjoy their clinical work. I am always looking for exciting new experiences to learn from, so, if you are curious about something, please, contact me! Let's design the future!
_Dedalyx presentation video
Medium:
videoSize:
2.18 min
_The Double Diamond Design Process — To find the root of the problem, this design research has been carried out within the Double Diamond Design Process framework using participatory design tools.
_Research questions (simplified) — In the 'discover' phase, I combined primary and secondary research tools to answer the research questions. These were divided into three themes: the technological scenario, the current training curricula and the human factors involved.
_Quote - Insights
_Quote - Insights
_Define — 'Define' is the first convergent phase of the Double Diamond and it seeks to synthesize the most important information collected in the research phase, and outline the design challenge.
_Develop — 'Develop' is the second divergent stage of the Double Diamond Design Process: the ideation phase. First, the combinations of insights are developed and synthesized into design concepts. Then, after evaluating the implications and potential impact of each, a single concept is selected and will be further prototyped.
_Deliver — The concept of Dedalyx was developed in 'Deliver', the last convergent stage of the Double Diamond. This phase combines small sub-phases of research, prototyping, analysis, synthesis, and concept visualization. Finally, it is presented to people involved in surgery or healthcare so as to be evaluated.
Medium:
Images
_Dedalyx Thimbles — The thimbles are skin-like devices that track the movements of the fingers. Unlike other tracking devices, the surgeon can wear them under the regular surgical gloves while operating.
_Video Interface — The video interface has been designed to facilitate understanding of the surgical process.
_Data Workflow
_Key benefits
_Simulation
bioengineering and technology is a dazzling area that has advanced expeditiously in the last decades.
However, are we able to adapt to the same rhythm that we have created?
The health sector must become capable of evolving at the same time as the technology industry and
life sciences, so as not become obsolete. The healthcare sector is facing a new change involving
new demographic demands, such as the increase in the size of the general population. More notoriously the ageing population, who has a higher rate of incidence of comorbidities and long-term conditions. We must facilitate care providers with all the resources needed to adapt their skills and knowledge to the new paradigm.
Surgery must merry science and technology with art and humanity. The surgeon of the future will have
to a) learn to coexist and handle a larger amount of data from more diverse sources; b) to lead with
technical problems (especially electronic issues); c) to collaborate with other disciplines to solve complex
problems; d) and to interact with patients in a different way -as i.e., doing remote preoperative and postoperative follow-up.
My hope is that in the coming years, new pathways of international collaboration across all disciplines are forged to create, honest, comprehensive, and holistic designs, that give value to people.