Creating Smart Furniture To Foster Health Literacy

CHICAGO - April 9, 2014 - PRLog -- Chicago, Illinois – April 9, 2014

When cancer-survivor Vince Paglione founded Polar Green in 2008, he did so with one recent experience in mind.

Having recently received a second diagnosis for cancer, he and his physician were frustrated by the fact that the clinic’s medical workstation – a statically-mounted, low-resolution computer monitor – was unable to clearly display the images of Vince’s tumor.

“When I went to my physician’s office,” Paglione says, “he attempted to show me the actual image of the tumor. He couldn’t properly show me the image on his bulky office workstation.”

Throughout his numerous trips to three separate hospitals in Chicago, Paglione found the issue of the workstation to be prevalent everywhere he went.

While convalescing, Paglione conceived of a company where product interaction and user experience would always be a priority.  Equally important would be product design, where the efficient sharing of information and pictures would enable patients with a greater degree of engagement. While this type of mindset is prevalent in many industries, the health industry still lags far behind.

Upon conception of the idea and after his recovery, Paglione called together a global team of designers specializing in information technology, UX interaction, and design for health. Thus, the Informacio Workstation was born.

What Paglione initially established as an individual insight proved to be a global truth. His team conducted surveys with users in hospitals in the United States, Italy and Brazil. They found that even in luxury hospitals, medical workstations had serious design flaws.

Workstations were designed and constructed to use antiquated technology, with no hardware or software flexibility for future needs. There was no smart device integration, no touchscreen computers, or anything that reflected the incredible technological advances of the last decade.

Paglione’s team also found that these inefficiencies cost hospitals extra money: any upgrade to equipment would require an entirely new workstation, often resulting in bottlenecked workflows for medical and administrative staff.

With global data in hand, the Polar Green team then began prototyping their own workstation: one that would allow patients to clearly see pertinent images, allow doctors to make notes and deliver data directly to a patient’s smart device, and create a seamless upgrade path for administrators should they decide to purchase new equipment.

After completing twelve prototypes and receiving several international awards and accolades for their design, the Polar Green team has completed its initial design phase for the Informacio Workstation. For the last leg of production – creating a final product out of composite materials, installing the workstation in a medical facility, and analyzing its impact – the team has elected to pursue crowdfunding via IndieGogo to raise the necessary funds.

While crowdfunding might appear to be a strange model for a medical technology firm, the Polar Green team views it as an extension of their work: consumer education and health literacy are interwoven into the fabric of the project.  It also allows other companies and industry experts to lend their voice and support: Chicago’s 3D Printer Experience has agreed to produce 3d-printed rewards for project backers, and industry experts from all over the world will take part in a series of educational webinars.

The campaign for the Informacio Workstation is currently running on IndieGogo, and will run through May 23, 2014. It can be found at https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/informacio-a-modern-to....

About the company

Polar Green LLC is a design innovation company that seeks to promote both intellectual and technological solutions to design issues that face our modern environment. They are currently developing the Informacio Workstation, a medical workstation that integrates modern technology such as smart devices and touchscreen tablets into an elegant, ergonomic, and expandable piece of furniture.