ROBRADY humanizes healing technology
The incidence of Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) kills nearly 100,000 people a year and increases medical expenses by 20%. Working with HyGreen, ROBRADY developed a system comprising three distinct components that work in harmony and maintain a consistent visual brand.
ROBRADY’s industrial design and branding capabilities led to the successful realization of an award-winning and literally life-saving product.
Our client was developing a medical system to reduce the incidence of Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) which kills nearly 100,000 people a year and increases medical expenses by 20%. This innovative system comprised three distinct components that both had to work in harmony and maintain a consistent visual brand.
ROBRADY’s multi-disciplinary studio worked on a parallel path with the client, developing the design as the mechanical specs evolved. The final system was not only uniquely suited for the hospital setting with a durable, flame retardant housing made of PC/ABS medical grade plastic and energy-efficient transceivers and sensors but could also accurately monitor the system’s use and efficacy without interference from other common medical devices.
And ROBRADY’s design work extended into the psychological aspects as well. For busy healthcare professionals to adopt the system, it had to be as simple and unobtrusive as possible. The HyGreen Handwash station, located by soap or gel dispensers, could literally “sniff out” when someone had sterilized and send this information wirelessly to a central database. The information was then relayed to workers’ LED badge and read by a monitor near a patient’s bed and alerted the worker via a vibrating mechanism in the badge if their hands were not sterilized. In this way, the HyGreen Intelligent Hand Washing System literally took the responsibility for remembering to wash up out the healthcare workers’ hands.
Initial field tests of the HyGreen system are stellar. According to Popular Science, the HyGreen system has led to a 97% reduction in HAI at its test sites. Additionally, the system won Popular Science’sBest of What’s New Award for 2009 and took Gold at the 2010 Medical Design Excellence Awards. See design and testing updates on the HyGreen Intelligent Hand Washing System.