Adept - Design that matters
The final product
The Acuset™ IV Flow Controller has the potential to save millions of lives and improve the quality of clinical care in almost every clinical discipline throughout the developing world. It costs US$6 to produce, and is designed to last 10 years. Its patented dial-a-flow mechanism enables flow rates to be set with a high degree of accuracy and precision similar to the high-tech US$2,000 equivalent. It is intuitive to use even by relatively untrained operators.
To summarise the improvements of the the Acuset™ IV Flow Controller over the traditional roller clamp:
- The Acuset™ IV Flow Controller:
- enables superior accuracy and precision;
- has a linear flow rate control that provides faster and more accurate flow rate settings;
- is intuitive to adjust and use by untrained operators and novices.
The traditional roller clamp:
- has flow rates that cannot be preset or reset, and must be adjusted manually for each administration;
- 'creeps' resulting in highly variable flow rates over time;
- requires clinical training and expertise to operate with reasonable degree of accuracy.
The device is being evaluated in a study at Auckland Hospital and in field trials in Nepal. It was one of ten finalists in the prestigious $100,000 Saatchi and Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas for 2007/2008.
The Acuset™ IV Flow Controller will be sold by Ray Avery's development agency Medicine Mondiale. Central to Medicine Mondiale's ethos of sustainable practices is the development of products and technologies that have applications in both the developing and developed world markets. The Acuset™ Intravenous Flow Controller is an ideal product for them, as it can also be used to control the flow of chlorine in swimming pools in the first-world market.
