AbstractsMedical & Health Science

This Master graduation project describes the product development of the Philips Lifeshield, a smartwatch that provides cardiopulmonary resuscitation guidance device for (untrained) lay responders. The problem is that every year between 350,000 and 700,000 Europeans suffer and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. In 51% of the cases these events are witnessed by (untrained) lay responders in a home environment. However these people do not know the guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) during these events are require support in assessing the vital signs of a person that suddenly collapsed and instructions on how to perform CPR if this is required. The report describes the complete process from design brief to the embodiment of a first prototype to validate the concept, the Philips LifeShield. The initial focus of the project was on the spouses of the victims, often people with a higher risk of cardiac arrest, since these people have to be able to understand the given instructions and the use of the device. However, it does not mean that the LifeShield cannot be purchased by a victim itself and therefore additional function have been created such as the fall detection, GPS tracking and auto EMS call. The preferred location of the LifeShield was the forehead, since this is easy to locate for lay responders, it is often available and the signal quality was sufficient to detect the breathing and pulse. Additionally it was found that the experience flow could be seperated in 4 phases: the pre-event, preparation, attendance and aftercare phases. Each of these phases had their specific problems focused on the responder. After the problems were identified t different solutions were explored for a device that could be placed on the forehead and was available at all times. The chosen solution was the Philips LifeShield. The LifeShield can be worn by as a watch or key chain due to different modules and can measure pulse and breathing by using an accelerometer and a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor. If no pulse and no breathing is detected the device will prompt audio and visual instructions (including a metronome) to provide instructions on how to perform CPR. The strength of the Lifeshield is that it is easily available and still has a daily function as a smartwatch, but has an emergency function in the case of a cardiac arrest. Additionally the device will store data on the performed CPR, such as the duration, compression rate and quality, so it can help the professional responders (EMS) in assessing the situation upon arrival. The LifeShield can either be purchased by the spouse or the victim itself and contains also functionalities such as fall detection, GPS tracking and auto EMS call as long as it is connected to a smartphone. The concept was validated using 3 prototypes: an aesthetic model, a functional model and an interface model. The interface model had to version one with visual instructions and one without. The results among ten participants indicated that the overall shape of the device was favored, but…