Users of any capability needed to easily load the dose tube, empty its medicine, discard the tube, and repeat as needed
Philips Healthcare
SideStream
Philips often relied upon Humanfactors to devise innovative means for tackling an ever-expanding collection of design and engineering problems. In the case of Sidestream (a compressor-based, handheld breathing apparatus), the challenge was in developing an intuitive dose-loading technique. Users of any capability needed to easily load the dose tube, empty its medicine, discard the tube, and repeat as needed. A deceptively tricky problem, as the SideStream’s cramped interior could not expand, yet had to accommodate the dose tube along with some means of draining the contents from its tough plastic housing. Such a tight envelope resulted in some rather unconventional ideas: rotating capsules, puncturing triggers, shearing levers... Many innovative solutions were developed and considered, enabling the team to continually simplify and refine the interface such that users could operate SideStream as easily as using a mechanical pencil.
Concept Development
Users of any capability needed to easily load the dose tube, empty its medicine, discard the tube, and repeat as needed. A deceptively tricky problem, as the SideStream’s cramped interior could not expand, yet had to accommodate the dose tube along with some means of draining the contents from its tough plastic housing. Such a tight envelope resulted in some rather unconventional ideas: rotating capsules, puncturing triggers, shearing levers. Many innovative solutions were developed and considered, enabling the team to continually simplify and refine the interface such that users could operate SideStream as easily as using a mechanical pencil.
Engineering
Again, the lack of real estate inside the device made finding the space for functional components all the more challenging. Scaling the interface for adequate leverage (required to open the tough plastic ampule) and comfort was also made difficult due to the size restrictions. Parameters notwithstanding, we developed several viable, elegant solutions for performing this task intuitively, with minimal effort.
Sustainability
Once we had solved its dose-loading issues, we leveraged our adherence technology work for Opti-Chamber and applied it to the SideStream so that Philips could better track, analyze, and understand how this product performs during use. And based on the encouraging research results of Humanfactors’ work on paper/pulp versions of the Opti-Chamber Diamond, we developed similar versions of the SideStream device.
