Year  2017

Role  Industrial Designer Lead

Studio  frog (Munich/Germany)

A medical cart supporting groundbreaking new technology in neurosurgery.

Over the years, frog has been a solid partner to Aesculap designing several products for their different business units. After designing a new digital surgery microscope in 2016, B Braun came back to frog a year later to design the cart holding the complete system. The focus in this project was to seamlessly integrate the microscope and it's technology while offering the best experience to surgeons & assistants to smoothen the complex neurosurgery process.

I have been acting as the only Industrial Desiger in this program, working together with couple talented engineers. My role in this project was to understand the user's needs with this upcoming new technology during surgery and lead the design of the cart from both user experience & industrial design perspective.

Credits   Bertold Engler, Principal Engineering
Credits    Andrea Besana, Principal Mechanical Engineer

Product

Aesculap Aeos digital microscope allows heads up surgery and frees the surgeon from the microscope ocular tether. The surgeon determines the ergonomics not the microscope.

Unlike traditional microscopes, the system's flexibility with monitor placement, ensures surgeon & team with an optimal view at the same time. It optimizes hands on training opportunities and overall operating room teamwork.

Read the benefits of aeos here. And get more info on True Digital Surgery's website there.

Research

Because that new technology would implies new habits and procedure, we had to test scenarios and get feedback from surgeons. Understanding their new workflows & what would help them in their work.

The surgery process is important but what comes before and after is as important for the assistants. It was also crucial to understand their pain points, before, during and after the surgery.

Creativity

Basic workflow & architecture were tested with low fidelity mock ups. We first wanted to validated component placement such as screen, handles, button and drawers.

First phase sketches were focusing on research insights and we proposed several architectures as well as some detailing on crucial interactions.

Development

Testing in real life was crucial to get basic size & ergonomy requirement validated and detail sketching helped us finalize our concept.

Because of product's big scale, we had to go through VR as real models was both too expensive and time consuming. It was perfect tool for client presentation as well as implementation workshop.

Final design was hand over as it is. Aesculap continued developping the cart together with True Digital Surgery for the following 2 years. Few things have changed on the way but the final product stayed true to initial design direction.

Reviews

Statement of the jury

"Since the product launch, the feedbacks have been tremendous from surgeons and neurosurgery community."

Statement of the jury

"The compact camera heads are extremely convenient to use and also impress with their ergonomically rounded construction, featuring significant colour contrasting."