Roxxannia's iBiomed Journal
milestone 2
Preliminary Research
Prior to the second week of the Design studio, each member was responsible for one area of research to help come up with some preliminary ideas of the final prototype. I took on the forms and functions of an ostomy bag and found out the variety of types and custom designs that fit for personal needs.
Preliminary list of ideas
After obtaining more insights of types of ostomy bag, I came up with some ideas that could be added to original ostomy bag that solves the concern of J. Petermon.
Since the patient concerns about the excess gas production and constant burping, the main change has to be made on the filter that can efficiently filter gas out whilst not being saturated by the liquid output. Thus, I came up with the idea of designing a separate chamber for the filter that we will have multiple layers of filter at the chamber, made of waterproof materials. This not only protects the function of filter but also ensures that odor is filtered out before enter the atmosphere.
Concept generation
After sharing our research on the field that we were assigned to and the preliminary lists of ideas, we came up with two concepts; both ideas involve the separation of the filter and having a chamber itself to prevent being saturated.
The first concept(Figure ) will include a shape-change of the bag itself and having a straw filter that Mathieu came up with. In this design, we will have a "tortilla" shape with Velcro tape on the sides, allowing the patient to wrap the bag around the thigh. The shape change forces liquid not to accumulate at the bottom of the bag but more spread out (filling around the thigh). This design will also require a change in the material. The straw filter will assemble the mechanism of a juice box that the gas is filtered and emitted through it. The straw filter contain multiple types of filter layer which further ensures the odor repelling feature that is crucial to the patient. We also change the stoma receiving opening to a moldable opening comparing to the original cut-to-fit; the moldable opening encloses the stoma opening better which also provides extra protection to the surrounding skin.
Concept 2 remains the traditional shape and design. The major change has the similar idea as concept 1, to separate the filter with the liquid waste.
In this design, we design a separate chamber for multiple layers of layers. As gas passes through the inner layer of the filter (made of waterproof material but permeable to gas), the chamber will act as a temporary storage for the filtered gas. The gas will be filtered again at the outer layer of the filter then emitted to the atmosphere. The multi-layer will ensure the odor-repelling feature that is crucial to the design. The moldable opeing also apply to this design as moldable provides a better seal than cut-to-fit, and also saves the time to cut.
Concept generation
At the end, we compared the two concepts by comparing the features and whether the designs meet the need statement, and objectives and constraints that was set at the beginning of the project.
After comparison, all four of us favours the first concepts because:
-
More discreet design
-
Tortilla-shaped ostomy bag allowing liquids to spread out
-
more appealing secondary functions
-
may give a new solution to a common problem
-
meets all constraints
-
meets most ideal objectives