Abstract

Sustainable medical device design in the context of a health emergency is an unexplored area of research. The urgency to save lives implies that eco-design strategies may not be considered. However, some of these strategies could lead to cost and manufacturing time reduction, implying that more units could be produced, and more patients reached. This paper aims to provide feasible eco-design strategies that could be shared with the stakeholders involved in the product design and manufacturing of emergency ventilators for Covid-19. The objective is to help tackle the Covid-19 crisis in a more sustainable way, and increase the access to healthcare of people requiring assisted ventilation during the health emergency. Adopting a Whole Systems Design perspective (Blizzard and Klotz, 2012), this research has applied the Holistic Design Framework (Aranda-Jan et al., 2016) and the Eco-design Strategy Wheel (Brezet and Hemel, 1997) to elaborate preliminary strategies aligned with the emergency design objectives. Different design for sustainability tools, approaches and principles have been used to discuss, analyse and provide a final set of recommended strategies. These can be grouped in four categories: design for assembly, extension of product lifetime, usage of materials, and lean manufacturing. Despite further efforts are needed to overcome implementation challenges identified during the definition of strategies, it is expected that the above recommendations can be put in practice in a short-term to bring benefits in terms of better environmental impact, lower costs and total manufacturing time.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.