Deliver.
Objective of the week : Narrow down on our ideas and start prototyping. The week started, and ended on a positive note, although we had a rough patch in the middle as we started to hit deadends in our ideation or had differences in thought.
By mid-week, we found ourselves in a fix. We had reached a blind end. Each of our ideas seemed obsolete, or expensive. However, a thorough interaction with our mentor helped us focus and embark on a path.
From here, began our journey to get this “perfect in-theory” idea to work out in practicality.
We went back to researching and trying to source our raw materials.
Our engineering students, Mihika and Krunal worked on getting the best suited technology, and coding it to perform the actions we wanted it to. Samruddhi, our product designer worked on getting the form, ergonomic considerations, practically feasible and looking for the best suited materials and working on the pitch presentation. Our med student, Aditi, looked for more features to provide comfort and medically appropriate solutions, signing off on ideas, looking for the exact dressing material we needed and preparing for the pitch.
Finally, after a month now, here we are, with a proposed design, all checkboxes ticked, a virtual prototype and high spirits!
We introduce to you, Decucare! Decucare is an innovative solution that blends existing bed sore prevention technology with comfort and effectiveness. Our solution is a NOVEL WATER MATTRESS OVERLAY, which means that it can be used along with the existing infrastructure present in hospitals, or in your home where you are caring for an old patient.
Instead of pumping the inflatable pads with air, we will use water! This will bring our costs down drastically, since water pumps are cheaper than air pumps. For this purpose, Decucare will take inspiration from sprinkler irrigation systems that regulate water flows at multiple touchpoints. The water used with keep entering or exiting the water bags as per the inflation needed, and hence you won't need to keep adding more water.
The water can be drained, and the overlay can be folded and carried along with the compact pump!
Adding value to the current technology of alternating pressure in mattresses, Decucare provides a customizable inflation approach that works on time cycles! Add to that, the materials we use for the inflating pads are Stretchable, non-slip, comfortable, water resistant material for the inflation, while the other half of the bed is made of healing, comfortable mepilex foam!
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