Introduction and Patient Profile:

Ostomy bags have become essential in improving the lives of patients who have undergone ostomy surgery. An ileostomy is a surgical procedure that reroutes the small intestine within the gastrointestinal tract. The procedure changes the path taken by bodily waste as it exits the body. The end of the intestine is extruded and secured to the lower abdomen area, forming an opening for waste to exit called the stoma. While the two-piece ostomy system is effective, the functionality does not fit the exact needs of many ileostomy patients, including our patient, Mr. Peterman. Mr. Peterman is a 47-year-old man with an ileostomy who finds himself taking frequent trips to the bathroom, worrying about ballooning in his ostomy bag and the decoupling of the bag from the wafer because of frequent gas output. He also deals with loose stool collecting in the ostomy bag. This means that even with using a filter to allow for frequent gas flow, the filter can only last a couple of hours due to contact with loose stool.

An example of a ballooning ostomy pouch which directly relates to our patients problem

Solution:

Considering both issues, we created the Ostoslyde, a sliding system designed to conveniently release deodorized gas from an ostomy bag whenever needed. The system is composed of a lightweight, waterproof, plastic material. It has an internal and external barrier attached to a protruding tab. The charcoal filter fits between the inner and outer barrier, always protected from the internal fecal matter and changing external environment. A single slide of the tab will open the internal and external barrier, exposing the charcoal filter and allowing pressure to flow through. This allows the release of the now deodorized gas. Once the gas is released, the user can close the tab shut, concealing the filter in between the two barriers, and closing the system as a whole. This prevents any gas from flowing through. Our system was designed to be convenient for the user while still meeting the standard requirements of an ostomy bag. The Ostoslyde will be approximately three times smaller than our prototype design, and it will come preattached to every ostomy bag. Therefore, the device maintains its function as a two-piece ostomy system but allows for convenient gas release without visiting the bathroom frequently. Looking ahead, we hope to make the Ostoslyde out of biodegradable material and environmentally friendly. We also hope to add a spring or anything that locks the system into place when it opens or closes so that there is no chance for any leakages. Anyone with the same issues as Mr. Peterman will want access to our design because it is a system tailored to their needs and created with the sole purpose of improving their quality of life

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfSF15hFpXs

One Page Slide Deck of our solution: The Ostoslyde

The one-page slide deck final deliverable was probably the most difficult aspect of this project as our goal was to display our solution in as few words as possible and on one slide. A roadblock we faced was that we created our first one-page slide deck with too much text so we had to redo the whole thing. In order to accomplish this, we brainstormed some of the most important aspects of our design like the sliding opening, convenient release of gas and reduced pressure. However, something we could still work on is using an image that invokes an emotive response from the audience, making them want to learn more rather than just laying out our solution. Nevertheless, this was a great summary of our solution and I am extremely proud of what we came up with.

Scheduled Weekly Meetings and Milestones

These milestones are a summary of the information we gathered throughout the design process.

Assignment of roles in the first week so we knew what everyone was responsible for.

Summary of patients problem

The need statement, objectives and constraints were extremely important in the design process as it is a way to clearly define the problem. We often referred back to this milestone when we were stuck and these points helped us realize the real problem we are trying to solve.

Milestone 2- Preliminary Brainstorming of Ideas

These were the brainstorming points we came up with when we started thinking about how we want to create our prototype.