ivvy

What it does

ivvy aligns equipment for IV therapies with the needs in the home setting. ivvy consist of a wearable that provides patients optimal mobility, an infusion pump that is intuitive to use, and a software so that nurses can follow up with their patients remotely.

Your inspiration

During the search for a thesis subject, I heard a colleague of my mother complaining about the ugly apparatus that her child needed for her home treatment. She told me that she switched the IV pole for a beautiful coat rack that she found in Ikea. As a result of this, I start searching for trends and I found out that home hospitalization is a rising phenomenon. I talked with a home nurse about this and she confirmed that the equipment used for IV therapies is the same as the one that is used in hospitals and that there are certainly problems because of the different characteristics and needs in the home setting.

How it works

ivvy consists of three products: a wearable, an infusion pump and a software. In the current situation, the IV equipment is bringing a clinical atmosphere inside the patient's home. ivvy replaces the IV pole with a wearable that is aesthetic so that the product is less confronting and fits better in the interior. The wearable can be worn on the body or as a purse and provides optimal mobility. Currently, there is a lack of feedback about the treatment and existing infusion pumps have a complex interface. That’s why an infusion pump with a minimal interface and intuitive use was designed. The pump works with a lineair peristaltic pump. Nurses can easily set up the therapy and patients can follow their treatment through the led strip, the display, and sound notifications.  By making use of the Sigfox network, data from the infusion pump is sent to the software so that patients can be followed up by their home nurse.

Design process

I started this design process by researching the current situation. By doing desk research, interviews with many stakeholders, and observations, I got insights into the current situation and its problems. With this input, I defined a design brief that served as a guideline throughout the design process. In brainstorming with design students, I defined a look and feel for my product which defines a good balance between a domestic and personal look that is still professional looking. I start sketching many ideas for the different side problems that were defined in the design brief and combined them into different concepts which I verified with patients and home nurses. I made low-fidelity prototypes of the best ideas to further test and verify them. It was a long iterative process to come to the final design. A high-fidelity prototype was made in order to do user tests with patients and nurses. The tests showed for example that the use of the main button was not immediately clear for the users and that it was more logical to switch the place of the information on the display. The output of these tests resulted in another design iteration. Other verifications that were done were a risk analysis and a verification of the look and feel of the product solution.

How it is different

Home IV therapies make use of equipment that is acquired from the hospital. ivvy was designed from a different perspective which makes the product solution unique. Infusion pumps are very complex because they consist of many different screens, buttons, and settings. Home nurses have a broad work field and it’s not always evident to use these pumps. For the development of ivvy I focused on the user experience in order to make the product as intuitive as possible. Due to the balance of the weight of the wearable (the infusion pump is located at the front of the body and the infusion bag on the back) the patient experiences optimal comfort. The last important USP is the connection between the infusion pump and the home nurse. Data is sent to the software and notifications occur when there is a significant delay. In this way, nurses can plan their day more efficiently and patients feel that they are not alone.

Future plans

ivvy is a medical product and should fulfill many requirements in order to be operatable in the market. A first step in the further development of ivvy would be to investigate these requirements to achieve a CE mark. Moreover, more user tests can be done to further improve the design.

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