Abby Wilkymacky

Industrial Design, 2016

Enteral feeding is a hot topic in the medical field, nowadays and is used by patients of all ages and medical conditions. Various consumer and FDA reports back up the statement that current enteral infusion pumps are not durable, intuitive, or reliable.

The goal of this project was to solve these various design challenges in a way that enhanced the user experience with an enteral infusion pump. The project centers around refining the user interface and ensuring that the final design allowed for portable, home, and hospital use.

The Hero Pump, a rotary peristaltic, positive displacement pump, named after the Greek mathematician and engineer, The Hero of Alexandria, bridges the gap between home and hospital use. All of this is made possible through the choices made for the dovetail mounting system, control-locking features, and the cassette-style pump set, among others. The intuitive interface and mechanical cues also ensure that the user understands and easily remembers how to use the pump.

Abby Wilkymacky originally chose the design program after acknowledging and appreciating the fact that she is a hands-on, project-based learner and is very interested in the user experience, service design, and research. Abby’s ultimate goals involve interacting with and helping people, whether that relates to medical product to save lives, recreational products to have fun with, or services and experience to aid in a users understanding or education of a system or process. Abby is an Ohio native with an adventurous spirit and will be moving to Phoenix upon graduation to pursue a lifestyle and career out West.