Early Stage Product Development of a New Anaesthetic Vaporizer Concept for Use in Low Resource Settings

2019

I denne masteroppgaven har en ny anestesifordamper for bruk i utviklingsland blitt undersøkt

and utviklet ved bruk avUlrich og Eppingers produktutviklingmetodologi for konseptgenerering

og konseptvalg. Konseptet er presentert av Prof. Fenton som en ide for å gjøre anestesiutstyrmer

tilgjenglig for utviklingsland.

Konseptet ble dekomponert i flere sub-problemer, og for hvert sub-problem ble en fem-stegs

konseptgenereringsmetode brukt for å generere konsepter og løsnigner. Flere konsepter ble

valgt for prototyping. Igjennom en iterativ prosess av søk etter løsninger, systematisk utfoskning,

reflektering og evaluering, og ’rapid prototyping’, ble en siste løsning for konseptet foreslått

og prototypet.

Eksperimentell testing ble gjennomført ved St. Olavs hospital, Trondheim, for å evaluere konseptet.

Resultatene indikerer at prototypen var funksjonell og at den fungerer som ønsket. Mer

testing kreves for å kunne sammenligne fordamperens prestasjoner med andre anestesifordampere.

Det er ansett som at konseptet har potensialet til å laget robust, å lages for lett bruk, og å lages

for å være lett å reparere, for å kunne håndtere problemer med anestesipleie i utviklingsland.

For this thesis a new concept for a vaporizer for use in low and middle income countries has

been examined and developed using Ulrich and Eppinger’s product development methodology

for concept generation and selection. The concept was presented by Prof. Fenton as an idea for

making anaesthesia equipment more suitable for low resource settings.

The concept was decomposed into several subproblems, and for each subproblem a five-step

concept generation method was used to generate concept solutions. Based on a concept selection

phase, a few concepts were chosen for prototyping. Through an iterative process of research,

systematic exploration, reflection and evaluation, and rapid prototyping, a final solution

for the new vaporizer concept was proposed and prototyped.

Experimental testing was performed at St. Olavs hospital, Trondheim, to evaluate the performance

of the concept. Results indicate that the prototype was functional and that it worked as

intended. More testing is required to be able to compare the performance to that of other vaporizers.

The concept can be made robust, easy to use, and easy tomaintain and repair, to cope

with the challenges regarding anaesthesia care in low andmiddle income countries.

NTNU