Listening for disruption: Blue lights and new knees

By Trisa Thompson

This article can be read in full as originally reported by the Huffington Post.

I recently authored an article published by the Huffington Post about how social good engineer Krista Donaldson and her team at D-Rev are creating a world where everyone receives the care and support they need to succeed and thrive.

Krista is the inventor behind Design Revolution, or D-Rev, a Bay Area nonprofit design firm and technology incubator that develops market-driven products to improve the health of people who otherwise would not have access to quality care.

Krista’s TED talk and the many articles and videos about her and D-Rev show how babies, students, fathers, and mothers located in rural villages and remote hospitals are now receiving quality healthcare through D-Rev’s innovative product design and delivery. In early December, D-Rev launched its first mobility product, the $80 ReMotion Knee, which is about one-fifth the cost of competitive products. Today, nearly 7,400 number amputees have been fit with the ReMotion knee.

We asked Krista, how does a small start-up innovate in such a big way? Her response: By listening first to customers. “We start with problems that are user-identified. When you are focused on solving problems versus creating products, your design process encompasses so much more.”

D-Rev sends its designers into the field to conduct interviews with patients, doctors and nurses. By talking with doctors in rural India, D-Rev learned that many babies with jaundice were not being treated effectively because their equipment was too expensive to maintain. Krista talks about her research experience in India hospitals in my Huffington Post article.

Our Dell sustainability team became involved with Krista and D-Rev when they began to use donated Dell workstations and displays for their product design work.

Dell believes technology has a powerful role in helping others to benefit the world. In fact, we’re committed to achieving 21 goals by 2020 that bring social and environmental objectives together with our business objectives to create value for our customers as well as our people and the planet.

I invite you to read more about Krista and D-Rev work to design products that can transform lives in my Huffington Post article.

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