Simulations on Medical Packaging Usability
Posted by Karen Greene on Tue, Nov 09, 2010 @ 10:44 PM
Michigan State University Health Care Packaging Immersion
Citation from: "Pharmaceutical and Medical Packaging News", on line version--PMP News provides an excellent summary of Michigan State University's Health Care Packaging Immersion Experience developed in conjunction with Oliver-Tolas HealthCare Packaging. The (HcPIE) deployed MSU's Leaning and Assessment Center on the East Lansing, MI campus.
PMP News article except:
In October, Michigan State University (MSU) and Oliver-Tolas Healthcare Packaging debuted their new program, the Healthcare Packaging Immersion Experience (HcPIE). The event brought together healthcare professionals, medical packaging experts from Oliver-Tolas and MSU’s School of Packaging, as well as educators from MSU’s Learning and Assessment Center (LAC), which serves the Colleges of Human Medicine, Nursing, Osteopathic Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine.
Introduced as a pilot program to invited medical device packaging professionals, HcPIE focused on how sterile medical packaging is used in the operating room and in the emergency department. “With regard to medical packaging, the basic challenges facing medical device manufacturers remain fairly constant while the complexity of these challenges increases constantly,” said Jane Severin, PhD, director of technology for Oliver-Tolas Healthcare Packaging. “This venue provides a collaborative approach to problem solving by linking packaging professionals, academia, suppliers, and healthcare practitioners to discuss packaging challenges and solutions.”
Simulated procedures, employing life-like human patient simulators, enabled volunteer healthcare practitioners to open packaged medical devices as they would during actual procedures, revealing how packaging can ease—or hinder—aseptic presentation.
Before the simulations, MSU professors and guest presenters explained theories behind packaging design and aseptic presentation. “Packaging engineers tend to focus on product protection, but they also need to consider the user,” explained Javier de la Fuente, M.S., a doctorial candidate at MSU’s School of Packaging and codirector of Factor IDD, a design consultancy focusing on packaging and product design.
IoPP.org's Medical Device Packaging Technical Committee(MDPTC) is considering ways to leverage this innovative medical packaging design "review" process to advance the end user performance of sterile medical packaging.