The FreeArm is a portable, bendable device that serves as a helping hand for tube feeding and IV infusions. It was invented by Will and Misti Staley for their son Freeman, who was born with complex medical needs.

"You'll be sitting on the couch at home trying to feed your child and hold the gravity syringe at the same time, but then you have to reach over to get the milk," Misti said in an interview with MGA Homecare, "but maybe you've forgotten the medicines, so you have to walk over to the other side of the kitchen to get them, all while you're still holding your child and the gravity syringe." Misti and Will subsequently rigged up prototypes in their garage.

Sadly Freeman passed away, after months of treatments. The Staleys knew that other families had kids with the same needs as Freeman's, and set out to make their design available to the masses, in Freeman's memory. They succeeded in getting a v1 out on the market, and when they decided it needed further refining, they turned to industrial design consultancy Spanner.

FreeArm

The FreeArm is an FDA Class 1 Medical Device that helps make tube feeding easier by enabling better mobility and reducing pain points for users already contending with a complicated medical condition.

Based on the learnings of an initial V1 product, FreeArm's founder wanted to resolve product and feature issues while delivering a more feature-rich version that better reflected the company's brand and client base.

Problems to solve

- The V1 device suffered from parts breaking in the spring/hinge area

- The V1 device felt flimsy overall and especially the hook feature to which feed bags were attached

- The V1 device was not able to securely clip smaller sizes of syringes

- The V1 design was un-branded

- The V1 device felt sterile, lacking a human touch

Design updates

Spanner's foundation for redesigning the device was to first understand the client base and user personas. Then we proposed an iterative series of design concepts to integrate FreeArm's branding and humanize the product.

We jointly assessed manufacturing and usability pros and cons to down-select to and execute an optimized design concept that could accept the addition of an additional hook feature.

"It was a joy to work with Spanner on the creation of our new FreeArm Muscle clip. Every detail was thought through with user experience as our number one priority. We now have a clip that works wonderfully for our customer's needs and is whimsy and fun with the subtle nod in shape to our octopus mascot Ollie. We love it!!" — Misti Staley, CEO & Founder, FreeArm

Engineering solutions

Working closely with the FreeArm's founder and integrating the inputs from supply chain partners, Spanner resolved the engineering issues by evaluating the nature of the failures in the V1 device before increasing the wall thickness of clip parts, redesigning the hook feature, analyzing the tolerances, and eliminating interferences that previously constrained the range of motion.

Reconciling the device's mode of operation with manufacturability considerations, Spanner identified the best approaches for key feature changes to accommodate smaller syringe sizes.

Manufacturing considerations

Spanner considered the tooling and inventory investments already made toward other parts in the assembly that mated with the redesigned components, thereby eliminating needless incremental tooling expenditures, eliminating inventory scrappage, and mitigating assembly and validation issues.

Spanner then provided manufacturing consulting to successfully ensure that the design intent was faithfully carried forth by East Asia partners from the New Product Introduction through Mass Production.

Program outcomes

- Enhanced product and feature robustness

- Incorporated client-desired features

- Increased compatibility with syringe sizes

- Redesigned for aesthetic & branding

Project team

- FreeArm: Misti Staley

- Spanner: Alyssa Kinoshita, Torence Lu

"Partnering closely with Misti to help unfold her vision of a friendlier daily-use medical device was our delight and honor. Understanding and appreciating the challenges of tube-feeding individuals and their families provided us additional inspiration and motivation to explore and execute design concepts and to enable the design intent and engineering quality into high-volume manufacturing. We have been so thrilled to see the positive market reaction to the new design." — Spanner Senior Product Designer, Alyssa Kinoshita

We're proud to enable the vision to come to fruition and to be a part of their story — and their clients' stories, too. Learn more at https://freearmcare.com/

You can see more of Spanner's work here.