Theatre equipment design

DePuy International

• Built a user research capability
• Developed ideas for new products, services and processes

DePuy wanted to improve the tools (instruments) that surgeons use when replacing damaged knee joints. They commissioned me to conduct a series of projects to look at several surgical procedures and how the tools are sterilised.

At a process level, I created for DePuy a user research method that involved video capture of the surgical process, a tagging scheme and a video database, and an awareness of how to collaboratively analyse video across the organisation. I have experienced more than 100 hours of knee and hip replacement surgery and arthroscopy.

At an outcomes level, the insights gathered by the design and bio-engineering teams led to radical new approaches to the design of instruments, to how they are stored and transported and to how they are used – the surgical procedure.

In addition, we developed a better understanding of team work in surgery and of the role of the DePuy support team. This more strategic input has helped create a more focused positioning of their brands and products. We also spotted a number of service opportunities: some of the surgeons were very interested in the video of their surgery, we explored making this available to them so they could improve their techniques (as they might their golf swing).