Intellectual property, or “Why can’t I show my work?”
A common frustration for product designers is that we cannot discuss our work with specificity while our projects are ongoing or if our work isn’t published by our clients. It’s especially challenging for product designers when we are developing pharmaceutical products: those products that are fortunate enough to be commercialized take years to do so..
So, while I cannot discuss or showcase in detail the projects I have worked on, I can show a few images from published intellectual property that features my work. And if you do a google patent search using my name, you will find more detail about my design work.
For fifteen years I’ve helped my clients develop medical products with a focus on safety, usability and simplicity. In my role as a product development consultant I’ve supported global pharmaceutical giants as well as the smallest startups. The three product categories that have occupied me the most are compliance aids, inhalers, and injectors.
Child resistant compliance aids
It’s a tall order to satisfy the need for ease-of-access to medicine for the elderly while also protecting children from the dangers of prescription medicines. Often a package that is successful at keeping a child out of the package also makes it impossible for an adult to open. After completing child resistant packaging training at Perritt Laboratories, I developed a number of patented devices that protect kids while reducing confusion for adults.
Large, grippy “minder cap”. Tighten the cap and the day display advances automatically through a clear window, reminding you of your next dose. Removing the cap resets the mechanical mechanism automatically.
Non-round cap offers leverage for opening without reducing the number of bottles that will fit in a case. Push the button to advance the display.
A serious diagnosis can increases the number of prescriptions for patients in crisis and complicate dosing regimens. This child resistant multi-medicine organization tool reduces confusion and compliance errors.
Dry Powder Inhalers
A considerable challenge in delivering powdered medicine to the lung is de-agglomeration of the tiny active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) from larger excipient carrier particles such as inert lactose. I like to visualize that task as flicking medicine the size of a pea off of a basketball but without touching either the pea or the basketball.
As a member of small multidisciplinary teams I’ve developed inhalers that deliver API to the lung using aerodynamics supplied by the inspiratory flow of the patient and also vibratory frequencies powered by batteries and electronics.
Injectors
Grumpy cat tells the story, does he not? I can’t share a single thing with you. But I’ve worked on rescue injectors and health maintenance injectors alike for the young and for the old, applying professional services for patient research, human factors, new product concept development and prototyping.
