AMBULANCE PERSONNEL PARTICIPATING IN CO‐DESIGN OF A NEW CONCEPT FOR 

DETECTION OF TRAUMATIC INJURIES IN EMERGENCY CARESiw Eriksson 1‐2, Jiaqi Yao 2, Phu Lieng 2, Leif Sandsjö 1‐3, Pontus Wallgren 2, MariAnne Karlsson 2

1 University of Borås, Borås, Sweden  2 Design & Human Factors/Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden3 MedTech West, Gothenburg, Sweden

Ideation The main purpose of the ideation stage workshopwas to create ideas in relation to the intended useof the new concept. A second purpose was to getthe participants familiar to each other, theenvironment, and the overall situation in order tofacilitate collaboration. Refreshments were servedto keep everybody going!

ResultsResults from follow‐up interviews tell that the company representatives got more detailed knowledge about the ambulance personnel’s needsearlier in the process compared to previous projects. “We got answers to (crucial) questions we never had thought about”. This knowledgemay contribute to a better product with higher usability. The ambulance personnel were positive and pleased to contribute their knowledge.One response was “it is very interesting to contribute to the development of a future product”.

The Co‐Design Process*

IntroductionStudies in product development argue the importance of userinvolvement when designing products. Benefits include targetingrelevant problems, finding usable and innovative solutions, andeliciting user needs and expectations that may prove critical whenintroducing the new product.However, some difficulties have been identified. These are mainlyrelated to differences between the users and developers in terms ofskills, experiences, terminology, goals and perspectives and that theusers tend to neglect the value of their input.Typically, users are also included too late in the process to have anyreal opportunity to contribute to the design of the final product.

The aim of this study was to explore how early inclusion of usercompetence might influence the development of a novel conceptfor detection of traumatic injuries in emergency care.

The ApproachThe main approach of the study was to include all relevantstakeholders in a co‐design process. Ambulance nurses representingcar and helicopter ambulance were invited to three consecutiveworkshops together with development personnel from the companybehind the new concept, and design researchers and engineers. Allparticipants were enabled to not only express their views onsuggested solutions, but were also encouraged to take an active partin the design process and propose solutions based on their ownexperience. The workshops were held in the ideation, conceptgeneration, and concept development stages of the project. Eachworkshop was prepared by the researchers to enable and stimulateinteraction within the group by applying design practices and providemock‐ups and illustrations.

The ApplicationThe new concept being the case in this study was a microwave –baseddevice for early detection of pneumo/hemo ‐thorax .

ConclusionThe co‐design process facilitated the ambulance nurses to contribute their knowledge so that needs and requirements was understood andintegrated by the engineers in the design of a new concept for early detection of pneumo/hemo –thorax in emergency care.

Concept GenerationThis 3 hour workshop focused on hands‐onactivities based on sketches and mock‐upsprepared from ideas of the previous workshop,thereby confirming the input provided by theparticipants. A “material table” was arranged toallow the group to try out alternative solutions tothe ones that was prepared in advance.

Concept DevelopmentThe general idea with the 3rd workshop was tofocus on the most promising concept and take thisfurther using more detailed sketches, models andmock‐ups/prototypes.This provided the participants a chance to get a“touch and feel” experience of the concept andhow it may work in a real life situation.

(*) The co‐design process and illustrations are taken from “Conceptual design of a body interface for detection of traumatic internal injuries” ‐ a Master of Science Thesis in Industrial DesignEngineering presented by Phu Lieng and Jiaqi Yao at the Department of Design & Human Factors at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, 2015.