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A spoon full of innovation

The first time that I became aware of the need to pay specific attention to the design of medical objects was back in May of 2005, when the redesign of Target’s prescription bottle gained a lot of media attention. Besides a clear need for a visual update of the bottle to fit into Target’s “Design for All” brand, the premise for this redesign was much more than just pretty, it was driven by a major issue in the medical world. The aim was to provide more visual cue indicating who each prescription bottle was for, this in turn would lower the risk that someone might take a medication meant for a family member by accident. There was a host of other issues that the new design tackled, each illustrated in this article.

This week has brought us another potential show stopper in medical device design. The Medidome aims to come to the rescue of every little kid who has to get a shot from a doctor. This colorful toy-like dome simply sits on the child’s arm and dispenses medication outside of view of patient (and parent.) This simple and ingenious model pays great attention to people’s perception of pain. Rather than change the unchangeable, puncturing the skin, the focus of this device is really more about changing the patient’s perception of what the experience will be like. This may be a “well duh” moment for most of you, but why then did it take this long for someone to come up with this device? My only other question is when will they be available and will my doctor laugh if I want him to use one on me?