top of page
Untitled-1-01.jpg

Vacca

-A more efficient, safer and more organized vaccine administration solution

My Role

This is an individual project.

Time

12 weeks

Keywords

Healthcare

Research

Form development

System design

​

Problem

Vaccine rollout

The rollout efficiency of vaccines has not been satisfying in COVID-19 and previous pandemics, such as the H1N1 pandemic in 2009. Pandemic vaccine rollout will continue to be a problem if no changes are made to the process.

disney-vaccine-line-210_hpEmbed_20210113

Design Goal

To make vaccine administration process more efficient, safer and more organized, especially during future pandemics. 

Scope

scope-07.png

The Vacca vaccine solution focuses mainly on the administration phase of vaccination.

Research

Dive into vaccination topic and understand different aspects of the problem through primary and secondary research.

Historical view

timeline-02.png

Analysis of vaccine administration procedure

In clinics

Administration of vaccine flow chart_wit

The average time per patient is 10-15 minutes.

More than half of the steps are done manually by nurses.

Information documentation is not efficient.

In vaccine centers

In vaccine centers, doses are usually prepared in advance in a designated area and dispatched to each injection station.

vaccine center layout & flow-01.png
Vaccine center flow.png

Contamination can take place when a dose is transferred manually.

Information tracking becomes even harder

Potential for cross infection is higher.

Single-dose-vial vs Multi-dose-vial

What does being MDV mean to pandemic vaccines?

vacca website assets-03.png

More efficient transportation, manufacture and storage.

vacca website assets-03.png

Better for vaccine that requires cold chain transportation.

vacca website assets-04.png

Potential contamination especially when no conservatives are added into the vaccine substances.

vacca website assets-04.png

Shelf time causes potential vaccine waste.

vacca website assets-04.png

Time per patient is longer because doses are not pre-filled.

Interviews

With patients

Screen Shot 2021-01-28 at 10.21.23 AM.pn

Laura R.

Vaccine receiver in the U.S.

​

  1. Waited 1 hour in car and 1 hour in line before getting the vaccine. The hour waiting in line is not as comfortable because it is in door.

  2. Administration took about 5 mins.

  3. Waiting took 15 mins.

  4. The nurse drew up the vaccine in front of her.

With healthcare workers

Screen Shot 2021-01-28 at 10.20.17 AM.pn

Melvin

Healthcare worker in the JFK Medical Center​

​

  1. Some hospitals prepare all vaccines in syringes before mass vaccination.

  2. All syringes therefore need to be labeled and re-checked before given to patients. (Syringes must be labeled unless given straight to the patient)

Barry K.

Vaccine receiver in the China.

​

  1. Only waited 5 minutes for both doses.

  2. Vaccine came ready in syringes.

  3. Waiting took 15 mins.

  4. Each syringe is labeled and administered.

Screen Shot 2021-02-01 at 9.46.56 AM.png

Liliana

Healthcare worker in LA County

​

  1. In charge of obtaining intubation

  2. Not trained to administer vaccines, because she has been kept in ICU ever since COVID happened..

The waiting process can be long and can potentially expose patients to cross injections.

Staff shortage is a big issue once vaccine supply become sufficient.

Insights & Design opportunities

insight icons-02.png

Staff Shortage

As lack of personnels remains a big issue, a less labor-intensive, more efficient administration process is needed.

insight icons-03.png

Manual Steps

How might we reduce steps that require manual operations to make it more efficient and less susceptible to human errors?

insight icons-01.png

SDV vs MDV

How might we combine the advantages of both single-dose-vial and multi-dose-vial?

Design criteria

design criteria.001.jpeg

Ideation

Find the solution through extensive ideation, prototyping and iterations.

ideation-05.png

See the full ideation, prototyping and concept selecting process.

Final solution proposal

solution proposal.001.jpeg

A vaccine fountain that gets rid of the drawing doses process

Feedback from vaccination professionals

1517630866272.jpg

Florian Gruessing

  • Founder at CareSend (vaccine service)

  • PhD, Molecular Biology at Cambridge University

​

​

“The most important aspect you need to work on is the prevention of possible cross infections.”

"There is definitely great potential in this idea."

“But you have to make sure that the the patient who gets the 50th dose is still safe 100%.”

Design Development

Further develop the concept to make it an viable and feasible real-world product solution.

User scenario

Walk through the experience and steps for both parties to inform the form design and systematic design.

Patients

Rachel Capstone Project copy.jpg

Healthcare workers

Rachel Capstone Project.jpg

Form design

Main machine body

  • Convenient to use together with the hand held part.

  • Should look credible so that the patients can trust the machine.

  • Should not take up too much space.

Machine design01.png
Machine design03.png
machine design 05.png
Screenshot 2021-03-14 120422.png
rarara assembly 3.642.png
rarara assembly 2.640.png

Hand-held injector

  • Should be good for repetitive injection motion.

  • Should not be visually intimidating to the patients.

Hand-held part design01.png
IMG_5931.jpg
IMG_5911.jpg
IMG_5909.jpg
IMG_5912.jpg
IMG_5907.jpg
IMG_5910.jpg
Hand-held part design02.png
Hand-held part design03.png
IMG_5934.jpg
IMG_5922.jpg
IMG_5924.jpg
IMG_5926_2.jpg
IMG_5927.jpg

Final Design

in%20context%20shot_edited.jpg

System diagram

system diagram-02.png

Feature #1 -Super vials that contains 150 doses

The new super vials help eliminate the drawing up dose process, therefore drastically speed up the process.

feature1-10.png

How do the super vials work?

vial storyboard-07.png

Insert a vial into the machine and the vial will be recognized by the machine. (*The orange part indicates a built-in silicone stopper that seals the doses.)

vial storyboard-08.png

Run the pump to force the silicone stopper open and start transmitting doses.

vial storyboard-09.png

When a vial is used up, simply pop it out by pushing on the end of the vial.

Feature #2 - Built-in back-flow preventing mechanisms

As eliminating possibility of cross-injection is crucial to the solution, there are several back-flow preventions in palce.

back flow preventions-11.png

The peristaltic pump creates positive pressure and makes sure that the doses can only flow in one direction.

back flow preventions-12.png

There is a U-shaper channel in the hand-held component before the dose get into the arm, so that the liquid can not flow back to the rest of the doses even when the machine is not running.

Feature #3 - Hand-held injector

rachel vaccine fountain 0325.60.png
untitled.132.png

Quick needle replacement mechanism

Needle replacement.jpg

Press the top button to release the used needle.

Get a new needle.

Insert into injector by one click.

After injection, point to the disposal box to enable quick release.

The process of administrating one dose with VACCA

Injection process.jpg

Insert vial and

confirm dosage.

Run the pump.

One dose is temporarily stored in the "chamber".

1

2

3

Injection process.jpg

The dose is pushed out by the internal mechanism.

6

Insert a new needle.

Perform injection by activating the trigger.

4

5

Exploded view & Parts

BOM-01.png
BOM-02.png

See more technical details in VACCA tech pack!

  • Construction strategy

  • Internal components

  • Quick needle replacement mechanism

  • Trigger mechanism

  • Fastening methods

  • Orthographic & dimensions

  • CMF samples

  • Branding application

Assistive digital platform

Information Architecture

Inforamtion architecture-01.png

Key screens

key screens-13.png
key screens-14.png

Design Evaluation

Before & After comparison

VACCA brings differences in different phases within the administration process. Click to see more details.

ending-17.png
icon_black-04.png

More efficient

3 mins per patient including check-in, preparation & administration.

icon_black-05.png

Safer

icon_black-06.png

Less potential human errors;

No transferring prepared syringes;

Trackable vaccine information.

More

organized

information is more organized and transparent with VACCA's digital system.

bottom of page