Melhor case que li hoje
Focusing on people need not mean losing sight of the big picture, design thinkers argue. George Kembel, the head of Stanford University’s Institute of Design, points to Embrace, a fledgling health firm created by a group of his former students. The problem they set out to fix was the appalling lack of proper medical care for premature babies in poor countries. One reason for this is that sophisticated incubators can cost $20,000 or more; even if a country receives the machines from donors, the lack of proper training and money for maintenance undermines their effectiveness.
Many attempts had been made to reduce the cost of such incubators, but the Stanford team took a different approach, by talking to locals in rural areas. In the process, it dawned on them that most babies in the developing world are not born in hospitals, and so are unlikely to benefit from incubators even if they are working properly. The team designed a cheap and cheerful proxy: a tiny sleeping bag made of material that, when dipped in boiling water, retains heat for hours. Embrace hopes to start selling this $25 “incubator” soon.
