WORK
A Portable, Life-Saving Defibrillator
Designing a complicated device that’s affordable and transportable
The Challenge
Create a highly mobile, easy-to-operate defibrillator.
IMPACT
Defibrillators are available in more locations and used more often to stop a cardiac event.
The OUTCOME
Life-saving devices as ubiquitous as fire extinguishers.
As many as one-third of the 300,000 annual cardiac arrest fatalities in the US could be avoided if defibrillation was applied within minutes of the cardiac event.
Working with Heartstream, IDEO tested the effectiveness of alternative defibrillator configurations with different users to help develop a highly mobile and easy-to-operate product. Heartstream systematically refined the concept with the goal of making its defibrillators affordable, transportable, and as ubiquitous as fire extinguishers.
(This device is now manufactured by Philips.)
1996