Gold Medical Devices and Medical Equipment Design · 2023
Aselsan Hlm Heart Lung Machine
- A' Design Award 2023 Gold Winner in Medical Devices and Medical Equipment Design
- Awarded April 15, 2023
- CLIENT: Aselsan
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 1,434,304
- Verification code 8D7D7A7430 · Verify this award
About Aselsan Hlm Heart Lung Machine
The modular heart-lung machine is designed to provide users with the ability to create configurations tailored to the needs of each open-heart surgery. By utilizing a custom-designed layout specific to each surgery, the device's parts contribute to a significant reduction in blood hemolysis, leading to a higher success rate of the postoperative healing process. The design aims to enhance the performance of users during operations by reducing their physical and mental load. The device achieves this by providing clear information and bringing vital interactions closer to them.
Within the specialized realm of life-critical medical equipment design, the Aselsan Hlm Heart Lung Machine by Eren Dönertas represents a distinguished achievement in synthesizing complex functional requirements with sophisticated visual communication and human-centered interface principles. This cardiopulmonary bypass system, which assumes the vital functions of the heart and lungs during cardiac surgical procedures, demonstrates remarkable attention to the visual hierarchy of information that perfusionists must monitor during life-sustaining operations. The modular pump configuration, arranged in accessible horizontal array, speaks to contemporary design philosophy wherein complex systems are rendered comprehensible through clear spatial organization and consistent visual language. The color-coded digital displays employ chromatic differentiation that transcends mere aesthetics, serving as intuitive navigational aids that reduce cognitive load in high-stakes clinical environments. The elevated touchscreen presents comprehensive system status with evident information architecture principles, grouping related parameters while maintaining sufficient visual breathing room to prevent data overwhelm. Material selections appear calibrated to clinical realities: smooth, non-porous surfaces facilitate sterilization protocols, while the matte white finish reduces visual fatigue during extended procedures. The mobile platform acknowledges operational flexibility, permitting repositioning within surgical suites as procedural demands evolve. One observes in this design an elegant resolution of the eternal tension between technological complexity and operational clarity, the machine presenting its considerable capabilities through an interface language that respects the expertise of its operators while supporting their critical decision-making processes. The transparent pump reservoirs offer visual confirmation of fluid status, maintaining clinician connection to physiological realities even as digital systems provide quantitative precision. Viewers might contemplate how such designs embody a profound responsibility: the marriage of engineering excellence with interface design that ultimately serves the preservation of human life.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The device allows perfusionists (users) to easily create the configurations accordingly to the differing and momentary requirements of each open-heart surgery. The optimized arrangement of components connected to the device decreases the hemolysis of blood, which increases the success rate of the postoperative recovery process.
The usability features of the device reduce the physical and cognitive load of perfusionists, which helps them to take proper actions in time. - Dimensions & Packaging
- The device can be used in very crowded operating theaters. Therefore, the dimensions of the device are kept as small as possible to enable surgeons, nurses, and perfusionists to work comfortably and let the device get closer to the patient's bed. Dimensions are 950 x 410 x 1200 mm
- Tags
- Medical, HLM, Modularity, Cardiopulmonary
- Production Technology
- The product consists of chemical and Uv resistant materials to enable users to clean the device easily. Large parts of the product are designed using steel material for easy cleaning, virus resistance, and long-lasting, sustainable use. Large volumes are created by bending the steel sheet material. Pump units have a plastic shell to make them easy to carry. All of the mechanical parts in the pump unit are produced by Cnc machining. Supplying the parts locally ensures the device is sustainable.
- Design Challenge
- Operating theaters (usage environment of the device) are places that are unknown to designers and difficult to empathize with. Also, the user group has its distinctive terminology and traditions.
To understand the actual use, needs, and expectations of perfusionists in detail during the design process, long-term open-heart surgeries have participated. This was one of the most challenging point of the design process. The conservative usage tendency of users was another challenging issue. - Project Duration
- The project started in July 2020 and finished July 2022 in Ankara, Turkey. The applications for intellectual property rights were made in August 2022.
- Operation Flow
- Perfusionists can use the main screen to configure all settings. Then, they can detach/attach the pump units wherever they need. After these, users can perform most of the required actions only by using a pump unit's touch screen and knob. It allows perfusionists to bring important information provided by screens, reservoir, and vital tubing lines together in a reachable and visible area. This reduces the movements of perfusionists, resulting in a decrease in physical and cognitive load.
- Research
- User Research, Literature, Research Through Design:
-To examine the problems in usage, to meet with user group, to understand user group's needs and expectations, 5 expert interviews, literature review, a survey with 27 attendees, 12 in-depth interviews, and 8 in-situ observations are done. Insights were that keeping the device as small as possible, reducing the areas that users need to control, bringing the interactions closer, enabling easy configuration for each surgery are critical in usage. - Inspiration
- With the noisy, chaotic operation room environment, high workload, and stress, perfusionists can make errors while using the heart-lung machines during open-heart surgeries, which can create dramatic damage to patients. The design aims to reduce the cognitive and physical load on the perfusionists to enhance their performance during long-running open-heart surgeries.
Colors of Aselsan Hlm Heart Lung Machine
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