Colloquia

Summary

The Gastrointestinal tract lies completely within the body and is connected to the outside world through natural orifices. There are occasions in which the natural exit needs to be replaced by an artificial opening, also known as an ostomy or stoma. Intestinal stomas are the most common type of stoma. Currently there are 38.000 people with an intestinal stoma in the Netherlands. This number increases yearly by 7000 on average. More than 54.5% of these ostomates experience multiple physical problems as well as psychological issues. These vary from skin problems and leakages to a lack of acceptance and shame, resulting in a negative synergy affecting the Quality of Life.

The aim of this research project is to improve the current ostomy material to diminish the occurrence of physical problems. This is done by reducing at least one of the root causes of the leakage problem. This resulted in a concept that has the potential to limit the consequences of leaks.
Evaluations with ostomates, nurses and companies confirmed that the combination of aspects would form an optimal concept that could reduce the occurrence of leaks. Subsequently, fabrication and testing of a proof-of-principle prototype showed that the design performed desired behaviour. This implies that the solution is a valuable solution to the defined problem according to both the stakeholders and requirements.

The conclusions of these findings are translated into design guidelines for further development of an intelligent wafer that has the potential to limit physical problems and improve the Quality of Life of ostomates. More research must be done to determine the specific values of involved aspects, the performance in practice and to make it suitable for implementation in the current product and production process.

From the research it can be concluded that in general the innovation with regards to ostomy material should have more focus on ‘intelligent design’. The product should no longer be seen as a material that supports the transport and collection of excrement. Designers should use this opportunity to make the products much more useful by combining usage, performance and construction.