Abbott Vascular

Speck Design

Abbott

Overview

Project Categories

Industrial Design / Engineering / User Research

The Client

Abbott Laboratories is an American multinational medical devices and health care company with headquarters in Abbott Park, Illinois. Abbott focuses on innovative technologies to improve the way clinicians treat people with vascular diseases, irregular heartbeats, and diseases of the heart's valves and other structures.

"300 million life-years have been lost to cardiovascular diseases. It's time we reimagine patient care."
-Abbott Vascular

The Product

A hand-held stent delivery system, the handle-portion of which incorporated a finger-actuated lead screw used to accomplish stent deployment. Also included: a deployment lock and two Luer Fittings feeding separate fluid paths within the catheter set.


The Challenge


The new delivery design needed to incorporate a different internal mechanism and accommodate stents up to 180mm in length. Integral to the new design was putting more control into the hands of the surgeons with a more compact, low-force operation for better accuracy in delivery. Manufacturability was also a key consideration while integrating into the new stent delivery system.


The Process

Speck Design saw the root of the challenge of the Abbott Vascular device as a need for improved device performance as a catalyst for better patient outcomes. The more ergonomic the device and smoother the action--the better the tool would be for saving lives and avoiding potential complications. This purview brought to the forefront solving issues of recoil, rigid operation, and uneasy stent deployment as a solution for how humans interacted with the device. The stent limitations were seen as separate, specific device functionality parameters. By incorporating user research, industrial design, engineering, and an "end-user" mindset, Speck Design was able to make the mechanical changes needed for device performance while also creating something ergonomic

Tags

Engineering, Industrial Design, medical product design, User Research