Our Design Director, Carl Hewett, advocates user perspectives as a foundational element of healthcare innovation. In this article, he spotlights urinary catheters and considers how empathetic design can make a positive difference in health outcomes.
In the medical industry, understanding user needs is fundamental to obtaining successful outcomes and can unlock differentiation and patient access. Yet, this aspect of Front-End Innovation can often be lost in competition with many other influencing voices, such as those from a commercial, regulatory, manufacturing and payer viewpoint, the list goes on.
So how can we find and act on the opportunities that the user perspective presents? How then do we combine these with other development drivers and requirements such as the move from hospital to home, net zero goals, digitisation, and reimbursement matters?
Our Value Proposition Matrix, details how user, concept, and market perspectives can be harnessed to drive successful innovation. Here, we drill down into the user aspect of this, focusing on urinary self-catheters to illustrate the concept.
A static foundation
It’s 85 years since the Foley urinary catheter – a flexible tube which passes through the urethra and into the bladder – was first introduced. It’s a simple yet effective solution to help people void urine when they find it difficult to urinate naturally. It was the descendent of an intervention that dates back as far as ancient Egyptian treatment of urinary retention by means of transurethral bronze tubes, reeds, straws and curled-up palm leaves.
A modern-day Foley catheter is functionally comparable to these early origins, and largely unchanged from Dr Frederic Foley’s 1936 patent. It’s commonly used in a post-surgical setting with a semi-permanent attachment via the inflatable balloon. In recent decades, the emergence of intermittent self-catheters has enabled self-care at home. Whilst greater patient freedom outside of a hospital use setting is of obvious value, these devices have remained largely unchanged. Many people report physical pain and psychological issues with long term use.
Worldwide, over 100 million urinary catheters are being used annually. Unfortunately, Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI’s) are one of the most common healthcare associated infections. It would seem that an innovation overhaul of self-catheters is long overdue, and by placing user perspectives at the heart of design, innovation teams could create better solutions for end users’ physical and mental health.
Looking more broadly, there are many medical devices and technologies in a similar situation that have been established yet unchanged with no major improvements for some time. Procedures such as colostomy care, wound care, and dialysis would also see value in a more empathetic approach.
Download the white paper below which discusses:
- Human-centred design
- How to overcome embarrassment
- The sustainability question
- Reimbursement impact
- The wider design considerations empathy provides
