Smart Oxygen Delivery

 Process

This project, and ultimately start-up company AiroSolve, was born out of my time doing the UCLA Biodesign Fellowship.

Needs Finding from the Source

We took the Biodesign philosophy of finding an unmet need to heart, identifying 300+ needs over 3 months of clinical observation. One key observation we appreciated was that hospital staff have to physically go to the oxygen control in the back of patient rooms to adjust flow rates. While hospital staff are quick to correct flow rates when patients are receiving too little oxygen, they are slow to act when patients are receiving too much.

From the list of needs, we crafted and re-crafted needs statements that summarized the purpose of our innovation and how we would define success. We conducted a needs screening analysis to ultimately select a compelling need that our team would pursue.

While this may not be obvious, too much oxygen is actually dangerous, yet often goes unaddressed. Studies show patients are on the wrong amount of oxygen 50-84% of the time!

Translating Insights to a Minimum Viable Product

My team simultaneously dove into stakeholder interviews and market research, prototyping, intellectual property and business plan development.

I took the lead on product design, guiding strategic brainstorming, evaluation of design criteria and product specifications, and design of our minimum viable product. We continued to do primary design research about the behaviors of nurses, doctors, and patients around oxygen treatment along the way to inform decisions, talking to stakeholders from hospitals all around the country.

Pitching Purpose and Value

We developed pitch decks and presented in various business competitions and committees. One of the most informative to me was the UCLA value analysis committee, where I learned how hospitals decide which new technologies they choose to adopt.

By year's end we developed a working prototype of an oxygen delivery platform that combined device and software, filed a provisional patent, and decided to incorporate. I have omitted some parts of the project that are confidential. I have since stepped back to focus on work in health systems and healthcare delivery.