Client: Andrew Renton, Jadaar Engineering Limited
Product: Motorised perambulating full body hoist for transferring patients in hospitals and nursing homes.
The situation: As a lawyer, Andrew Renton had come across many nurses with back injuries as a result of transferring patients. Having seen the type of moving and handling devices currently available, he decided to set about designing his own. The result was the Smart Lift, which is fully motorised, avoiding much of the twisting, pushing and pulling currently required, thus protecting the carer from injury. The team built an Alpha prototype, which now needed to be tested.
Mountain Ash Consulting's role: Our first objective was to validate the market assumptions, to find out what problems the customer was currently experiencing, just how great their 'pain' was and what opportunity there was for this new design. The next objective was to validate the design of the new device - what features, attributes and performance was the customer looking for in a new device? What are the 'must haves' and what are the trade-offs? The final objective was to test the technology, to demonstrate that the technical targets covering functionality and capacity could be met in practice.
Implementation: Initially we spoke with carers in hospitals and nursing homes about their experiences with using moving and handling devices. We learned that there was indeed a need for a better method for transferring patients. As one nurse commented, "Equipment designed to prevent injury is actually causing injury to our staff". We then contacted users who were interested in trying out the new device in a controlled environment and providing in-depth feedback on functionality, requirements and gaps. The information was all collated to provide input for the next stage of the project – the design review and further development.
Results: The users were most impressed at the new design. One carer commented that "this is the future of moving and handling devices". This positive feedback gave the team the validation and impetus they needed to continue with their development. They are now working towards a launch in 2006.