blud

1/5

blud.

Domestic Blood Chemistry Analyzer

Spring 2021
DSID 144

Blud is a compact home blood chemistry analyzer that makes it easy to do your own blood analysis at home safely while also sharing important data with your doctor.

This ensures you are always connected to a medical professional to give you feedback on how you are doing or prescribe any sort of medicine.

It tests for A1C, CMP-14, Creatinine, and Triglycerides.

About Blood Chemistry Analyzers

A blood chemistry analyzer is used to determine components in blood.

Evaluates how well organs are working.

Helps diagnose diseases and conditions such as cancer, HIV, diabetes, and heart disease.

There are at-home versions but they only test for glucose and cholesterol.

Who is this for?

Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Person with established career

Gets blood work done about 1-2x a month

Patients that are looking for an at home system to reduce the number of times they need to visit doctors but still want to keep in touch with them.

Current Problems & Statement

After doing research on lab and domestic anaylzers, there were several main points that needed to be considered during the process.

Safety

When drawing blood, the injection needs to be precise to make sure the user is not harmed in the process.

Fear of Needles

Several patients may have Trypanophobia which keeps them from doing analysis on their own.

Complex Data Results

Sig figs and units can be confusing to a non professional. Most patients need to just know if they are within the safe and healthy range.

Mobility and Scale

Many analyzers can be large for a wide array of measurements. It needs to be moved easily and blend in a home.

Process

With these issues in mind, I began to ideate. I mainly focused on how its used to make sure it was as easy and safe as possible along with where it lived and how it fit in.

Top Concepts

There were a few attempts at different places where a person could draw blood. In the end, I stuck with the one drawing from the arm since it was the most familiar for a person and allowed for safer methods.

With that came the need to break the design into 2 parts, the analyzer and the probe for drawing blood. The concepts that were working were those that were more automated.

Walking through

Going through the motions helped me find issues and discover new things that need to be considered.

A major one being cutting down time someone holds on to probes since in this concept, their arm would get tired.

Interface Tests

For the probe, the goal was for it to make it easy so one person could use it on their own and would stay in place. All controls had to be visible and easily accessible at uncomfortable angles.

Unbalanced and arm gets tired

2 button controls not visible

Strap is not the best for different arm sizes

Pad conforms to all arms and stays in place with one control

Technology to pair

After researching different technologies and methods for drawing blood. One stood out because of its safety and form factor.

TAP uses a series of microneedles to make the blood drawing process pain-free, safe, and not require batteries.

Ironing out Details

Placement

The focus was the ease of use and removing anything that may be confusing in the interface and how the results would be displayed all the while being comfortable to look at and carry around. Another thing was reducing the controls to simplify the process.

Model Progression

Starting with slim forms with concern over storage, the form began to change based on what was most comfortable, accessible, and easy to read when sitting down in a living room or bedroom.