Zoë Shay-Tannas

Industrial Design, 2024

Developed in collaboration with Battelle and members of the Columbus Fire Department, the PullTag is an innovative triage tag that quickly captures crucial patient information without hindering EMS personnel from treating patients during a mass casualty incident (MCI) response.

During an MCI, first responders have a window of 30-60 seconds to triage patients, any more time spent and another patient could die. Implementing the PullTag ensures that vital patient data is captured without losing precious seconds.

Designed using a pull tab mechanism, first responders rip off sections of the tag that correspond to injury location, patient treatment, and patient tracking. Additional patient details such as name and date of birth are located on the back.

The PullTag will help EMS personnel to quickly identify injury severity and treatment applied. By eliminating the need to write down vital information, first responders can spend more time triaging and treating patients. Using the PullTag can lead to a more successful mass casualty incident response.

Zoë Shay-Tannas is a senior in industrial design at The Ohio State University. She is a former division one fencer for the OSU fencing team. Additionally, she is a Stamps Eminence Scholar.

Zoë learned about the intersection between design, manufacturing, and business operations when she interned for two summers at Rogue Fitness first as the Product Development intern and then as the Project Management intern. While designing her senior thesis project, she realized that her favorite part of the design process was design research and facilitating co-design research sessions.