Erdmann Solutions deepens sustainability collaboration with Stanford University

Neuhausen, Switzerland: – Award-winning design and engineering agency Erdmann Solutions (ES) has entered a formal collaboration with Stanford University, California to develop innovative medical technologies focused on sustainability.

This collaboration will pool the expertise of a European group with business background and an American group with engineering focus in a joint problem-solving exercise. This will involve field study, ideation, developing ideas and identifying innovative solutions.

The partnership deepens the existing relationship based on more than two decades of collaboration. This has included Raimund Erdmann teaching at Stanford as part of its D-School program. The collaboration has also provided joint inputs into the Circulab, the circular economy initiative organized by Stanford and the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW).

On-site investigations

The partnership will seek to harness globally recognized innovation methodology in Human Centered Design (HCD) to create new value propositions in medical technology. This will involve a six-month program of investigations by student groups in the Bay area of California and in Neuhausen Switzerland.

Research teams will visit many sites like production and logistics facilities, hospitals, research groups and leading Swiss companies. Each workgroup investigation will focus on a different aspect of advanced medtech design. Finally the groups will report back their on-site experiences in the field with their HCD insights.

Imagineering innovative solutions

Corporate experts, Stanford and ES will brief the students beforehand and give professional insights into how to structure their investigations. It is envisaged that outcomes can help to shape future designs of such medtech as operation room navigation systems and innovative design for consumer medical devices. They can also help design entire circular ‘3R’-based consumer product campaigns like return programs.

The development will be based on methodologies from Stanford’s ME 310 or D-School design programs. They will also use Erdmann’s HCD and early-stage design expertise. This has been proven in successfully harnessing inputs from long-established clients and partner. ES helped medtech companies like Stryker and JnJ to generate innovation leads and build hands-on prototypes in interdisciplinary teams.

Making the business case

The business model for the program seeks to leverage Erdmann’s expertise in HCD and early-stage development. These will be used to imagineer ‘outside the box’ solutions to emerging sustainability challenges and future market needs.

An immediate focus for the program will be on development of robotic collection of ‘spent’ devices following operating room use, in collaboration with J&J Medtech. This system needs further developed by ES for prototyping, testing and development for clinical use.

Raimund Erdmann commented: “We know that future medical products will need to be much more sustainable to minimize waste and logistic costs. Finding actual solutions to those needs must involve an open platform to generate the business case.”

About Erdmann Design

Erdmann Solutions AG offers award-winning human-centered Design and Engineering services that are particularly applicable to Life Sciences and Med Tech applications, including devices, control systems, production systems and packaging solutions.

The Erdmann Solutions approach are built around Innovation, Human Centered Design underpinned by usability engineering and testing and Branding Expertise, bringing tightly knit and dynamic design teams to focus on innovation and real customer needs, with particular expertise in high-risk in technologies in medical and pharmaceutical procedures.

Erdmann Solutions was founded in Brugg in 1978 operating today in Neuhausen by industrial designer Raimund Erdmann, who still leads the company. Since then, it has won more than 50 outstanding awards for its work with companies worldwide.

Further information at: https://erdmann.ch/

Resources

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