The number of patients suffering from arthritic conditions is reaching astronomical numbers. Currently 91 million U.S. adults or 1 in 3 adult Americans suffer from some form of this condition. Arthritis changes how people grasp and manipulate an object, reducing the functional capacity of the adult hand to that of a toddler. Given the physical limitations that patients suffering from this condition experience, it has become one of the most significant factors that pharmaceutical and medical device engineers must consider when developing devices that are safe and easy for patients to use.
The key to optimizing the design of pharmaceutical and medical devices for patients suffering from arthritis begins with focusing on how this unique patient group thinks, feels, and behaves. The use of Journey Maps will help you to understand how arthritis impacts their daily lives of patients, recognize their pain points, and identify “life hacks” that people create to compensate for their condition. Studies have show that humans naturally seek the easiest way to accomplish tasks which also turns out to be the most biomechanically efficient…or the usability “sweet spot”. However, when designing devices for patients with arthritic hands the “sweet spot” has moved and it is compromised with patients. The challenge under these conditions is to understand how patients’ grip architectures and grasping strategies are modified to compensate for their lack of dexterity.
Once you have gained an understanding of the challenges that patients with arthritis experience and how they compensate due to their condition there are still many other factors that need to be considered when designing the devices. First is the understanding that hands come in different shapes and sizes so you need to focus on the 5th F to 95th M percentiles for hand size, strength, and dexterity. In addition, typical finger nail length, dextereous grasping strategies, and skin thickness are all factors that need to considered during the device design process. Lastly, you must consider the use of ethnographic research techniques to optimize the design vs. more traditional patient surveys because what patients say they do is rarely the same as how they actually behave.
Key Learning Objectives
- Discuss the challenges of arthritic patients suffering and the importance of considering it in device design.
- Discuss factors that must be considered such as hand size, fingernails, grasping strategy, and skin thickness.
- Discuss research techniques that can help to optimize the device design and development process.
- Discuss design and research capabilities that Noble can provide for product launches.
If you would like to learn more about how Noble can help optimize device design for your next product launch please contact us at GoNoble.com.
