Innovation / Design Strategy / Brand Experience
Innovation | Brand Design Language | Design Assessments | Process Improvement | Cultural Shifting |
Strategic Visualization
FEATURED SERVICE
Usability Testing
Human factors/usability testing of medical devices not only makes the product better by designing with the user as the focal point it is also an FDA requirement as part of the 510(k) or PMA submission.
If you are responsible for getting a medical device ready for market we have extensive experience in this area and have prepared a presentation to educate on how we can help your company and product. For further information or questions on our Usability Testing processes please contact Intersection-Inc.or direct contact Milt Halsted at 949-533-9352.
To create a premium service to help you meet your Usability and Usability Testing / cmc / IFU requirements, Intersection has put together the most experienced team of experts in California to address your needs. Our group is led by Dr. Joely Gardner, widely known in Human Factors & Usability Testing services (See link to her recent presentation on IFU Testing: http://www.thedesignacademy.com/#!joely-gardner-article/ip8). Dr. Gardner has a Certificate in Project Management and is a licensed psychologist and a Fellow and Diplomate in the American Board of Medical Psychotherapists & Psychodiagnosticians. She has performed extensive usability testing and voice of customer research projects for companies such as Mitchell Medical, ThermoFisher (Life Technologies), Quest Diagnostics Clinical Trials Division, and Cardinal Health. She is a part-time professor at California State University at Fullerton in the graduate-level certificate program in Customer Experience and User-Centered Design.
Medical / Healthcare
End to End Product Development | People-Centered Research | Design Strategy | User Experience & User Interface | Engineering Design | Human Factors & Usability | Production Outsourcing
Project Case Studies
University California San Diego
Intersection Inc. is excited to be a part of the Kidprint Project at the University of California San Diego, where an interdisciplinary team led by Eliah Spencer is working diligently to develop technology that helps to identify infants via fingerprints in the hopes of digitizing and maintaining records in remote parts of the world, while providing better and more efficient healthcare. All of which is made possible from with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
READ MORE about this groundbreaking project
#gatesfoundation #futuremedicine #ucsd #medicine #medical
GE HEALTHCARE
The Magic of Science & Empathy, Creating a Unified Brand Experience
Intersection/The Design Academy consulted with GE Healthcare on mentoring and unifying the global design team through a Design Philosophy, The Magic of Science and Empathy, and values which have been translated into a brand design language experience.
The Global Design Philosophy presented by Bob Schwartz, GEHC General Manager Design, was rated by GE Healthcare one of their Top 5 Highlights at RSNA show in Chicago. The 'Magic of Science and Empathy' initiative is GE Healthcare's own drive to connect the functional features of its products with emotional benefits. We look to meet the healthcare industry's unmet needs," says Schwartz, General Manager of Global Design at GE Healthcare. Intersection / The Design Academy also developed a color palette based on the DNA strategy.
Healthcare is a major issue in our culture that requires a design's eye to bring a holistic and empathic experience to patients, caregivers, and medical professionals. Intersectio is experienced in creating the innovative framework to transform institutions to realize their human and social capital to their greatest advantage.
GE HEALTHCARE
Carescope R860, A New Patient Ventilator User Interface.
Intersection-Inc, worked with GEHC's internal design team to develop Carescape R860, a new patient ventilator that utilizes a full-touch human centered user interface to provide doctors, respiratory therapists and nursing staff with a clearer window into their patients. This patented UI allows for quick access to detailed historical data (past), current patient status (present) and clinical decision support (future.)
Project Highlights:
• Multi-disciplinary team building (the team tried to make it happen and they said to us going in that they didn't know if we would succeed!)
• Brand design language experience based on GE DNA values
• Aesthetic and functional interface (day & night screens etc)
• 5 patents GE Healthcare and sharing across other GE divisions
• Designed for different user requirements (drs / nurses/ etc)
CVS PHARMACY
The Pharmacy of the Future
When we met CVS, it was an operationally driven company looking to improve innovation processes and create a vision for the pharmacy of the future by exploring the unmet needs of their customers, pharmacists and other stakeholders.
Working under the umbrella of Launch Institute, three leading design innovation studios (Experientia (Europe) The Design Academy (USA West coast) Launch Institute (USA East coast) worked together to provide diverse perspectives and research methodologies to better understand their customers' pharmacy experience and inform their strategic vision. An innovation studio was developed for the client where innovation workshops were held to teach the process and distill the research. Ethnographic observations, interviews, secondary research "Learning Journey's" and The Design Academy's Salon were some of the methodologies used to provide best practice and rich insights from a global perspective on customers, pharmacists, healthcare environments, communities, and alternative health experiences.
Research and customer touch points encompassed
• Trends
• Form & space
• Workflows
• Interaction
• Customer Archetype Visualization
• Ethnographic Research
• Product
Results
• Innovation process knowledge building and experience
• Sustainable process development from research to concepts to opportunities and filtering
• Brand product and service experience concepts and opportunities
Alliance with
Through the lens of design we translate business strategy and insights into practical and meaningful user experiences, products and services for key stakeholders. In keeping with the changing and expanding needs of Medical/Pharma international clients for full service that is local and global, we have an alliance with PDD, a Global Product and Service Design Innovation Consultancy to create an "end to end" strategy and development experience. With over thirty-five years’ of combined experience developing medical & healthcare products and services, we fully understand successful innovation in this sector demands a holistic approach and close integration of diverse disciplines to address emotional, commercial and technological factors.
Together, Intersection-Inc and PDD generate growth and ROI for businesses by creating innovative products and services, strengthening brand appeal, and developing new market opportunities.
HITACHI
Designing for Health Management in 2025
Hitachi Design - an innovation centre serving all of the company's sector-specific divisions - invited PDD to look at European trends and industry expectations regarding the use of digital health records.
To create a vision of how people will manage their health in 2025, PDD interviewed thought leaders - e.g. academics, clinicians, journalists, government agencies and NGOs - in Denmark and the UK. The research revealed divided opinions on the value of digitisation: many proclaimed the clinical benefits of sharing health data, while others expressed concern about issues such as data privacy.
Using the insights gained from the research, PDD facilitated a creative workshop with the Hitachi project team to generate an evidence-based overview of digital health. To help capture the ideas generated by the workshop and share them with the wider Hitachi Design team, PDD worked closely with Hitachi to create an inspirational short-film. The narrative of the film was centred on a fictitious family and their interactions with healthcare practitioners and providers in the year 2025.
The film has already helped to generate a number of new research and development initiatives within the client organisation.
To watch the film ‘Hitachi - Future of digital healthcare’ click here.
MERCK SERONO
Taking The Sting Out Of Hormone Injections
Merck Serono commissioned PDD to find ways of simplifying the administration and management of its Growth Hormone therapy product Saizen®. The company wanted to create an automatic device that made injections easier, improved patients' quality of life and increased adherence to the treatment regime. Merck Serono also hoped to boost its share of a saturated and static market.
To explore the practical and emotional challenges of dealing with Growth Hormone Deficiency, PDD met young patients and their parents, adult patients and medical practitioners. The insights gained ensured that PDD's design for the new injector would both enhance the confidence of patients and address their need for more control over injections. The team felt that successfully tackling these issues would lead to a more consistent approach to self-treatment.
PDD's designers aimed to strike a balance between the user-friendly aesthetics of mainstream electronic appliances and the more serious visual approach adopted by existing medical products. The team achieved that balance with easypod®, a non-threatening and easy-to-use device that is the world's first piece of electro-mechanical equipment for injecting medicinal products.
easypod® allows users to fine-tune the depth, speed and flow-rate of each injection. This increases comfort and control and helps patients to overcome issues such as needle phobia and pain. The device also lets users pre-program doses, which reduces the potential for administering a wrong dose and minimises waste between cartridge changes. In addition, easypod® builds confidence by displaying a step-by-step guide to every procedure via its LCD screen. The machine is safe to handle too, with automatic needle retraction and ejection mechanisms, as well as a skin sensor to prevent accidental injection.
By responding to the concerns of patients, parents and healthcare professionals, PDD helped Merck Serono to create a product that simplifies patients' lives and aids therapy compliance. The company has used the same design platform to create its RebiSmart™ device for patients with Multiple Sclerosis.
easypod® helped to boost sales generated by the recombinant growth hormone family of products - including Saizen® and Serostim® - by 7.5% year on year.
WOUND CARE SOLUTIONS
Analysing product usage informs innovation planning
A global wound care solutions provider commissioned PDD to research how multiple stakeholders in the US perceived its products and treatments.
PDD mapped the treatment journey, analysed product use, identified knowledge gaps, and captured the internal understanding of how the provider was perceived in relation to the competition.
PDD insights from research challenged the client's assumptions about its perception in the market and about which stakeholders had most influence over purchasing decisions. Crucially, PDD highlighted an important yet slow-moving shift in the market that presented the company with a significant commercial opportunity.
Going beyond a report on the findings, PDD produced a printed book that explained the market dynamics plus the roles and needs of every stakeholder. The client encouraged its senior staff to refer regularly to this book, which included practical guidelines on future innovation planning across key areas.
Industry Collaborations
Intersection is on the 5 year steering commitee for Biocom as well as being an active member of the Biocom collaborative medical network.
Intersection is led a workshop panel at AdvaMed on Improving Adoption Utilizing Human Centered Design for Commercialization & Innovation.
In this workshop panel, Intersection discussed how to use new tools and understand perspectives on how companies, such as GE Healthcare have successfully achieved product adoption, growth, market acceleration, and ROI with solutions that resonate with users through a human centered design approach. Employing design thinking, early and throughout the strategic planning process, unleashes cross-departmental innovation and allows development of value–added solutions and market opportunities based on unmet user needs. It mitigates risk by developing hypotheses from a user/patient centric view in which concepts are then tested and validated through an iterative process. A positive user experience offers a key competitive advantage and increased brand value.
Understanding customer needs, patterns and emotions can set the foundation for product innovation and open untapped customer-centric market adoption and opportunities.
The workshop / panel deepened the understanding of how designing with 360 user experience will achieve better business results, taking a deep dive into exploring the influential affects of users’ emotional and physiological relationships with the technological interactivity of healthcare products in this connected world.