Design Principles

Design that Matters’ mission is to save newborn lives. The ultimate goal of Echo is to align with this goal. Since Echo itself does not treat newborns. The first question we need to ask is what can Echo do to have the most direct impact on saving lives? We know that if the machine runs longer, it will treat more newborns; if Echo provides accurate information on how the machine is performing and relevant usage data, it would provide us insights to improve the next generation of devices. In other words, in order for the whole project to make sense and be worthwhile, we need to make sure Echo’s design will optimize our outcome. The first two criteria we came up for Echo are: reliable and affordable. Specifically, Echo needs to have:

  • No moving parts and consumable (replacement parts)
  • Low maintenance need: Cannot cause the failure of the medical device
  • Real time alerts
  • Continuous signal
  • Low cost (during both implementation and operation phase)
  • Long lifetime