Design and Development process for medical furniture through a case study

The design process for medical devices requires a good understanding of all those requirements involved in the healthcare industry. Not only making sure that medical standards are met is important, but paying special attention to all the human factors and behaviours related with those procedures for which the device is intended, is essential when approaching the ergonomic perspective of the development process for medical furniture or other similar components/devices.
In order to facilitate the understanding of the process as well as making possible its future use as a reference guide for the development of other new related products, this thesis will be using a case study in which all the procedures and stages of the development will be described and applied under real conditions with the final outcome of a new product based on an Ergonomic Ultrasound Workstation.
The case study will go through the different stages involved on the project. It starts with the gathering of specific information not only about current technology available but also about methods of assessing the kind of operations that are generating these injuries, followed by in-site observations that will help to finally have a real picture of what the current situation is.
This will allow the development of an initial concept design, followed by a component-focused technology review, to give the outcome of a fully working prototype to be evaluated during an experimental stage. Findings from these experiments will be key to obtaining final conclusions as well as to establish the future path to create and sell a high demand solution.