研究発表

デジタルファブリケーション技術を用いた「ケアのものづくり」の取り組みと、それが看護や医療にもたらす新しいケアの可能性について述べる。

Self-help tools can be useful where sickness brings about physical problems. Since the daily problems of each patient are individual, it is important that the self-help tools also be individual. However in most cases, available tools are standardized. In this research, we ran trials for developing the two self-help tools listed below using a 3D printer, for a patient suffering from C6 spinal injury. Through these trials, we investigated the required knowledge set the development team must have as well as what information the team must extract from the client in order to create a useful self-help tool.

Our research aims to show the potential of applying digital fabrication to the creation of equipment for nursing. We performed a hearing survey toward home visiting nurses to know what kinds of effort are done in the field of home nursing and what kinds of equipment are needed to fit the individual patient’s situation. Based on the hearing survey we developed two kinds of prototypes: a suction training tool and a toilet support training tool. Through the prototypes’ development process, we investigated possible solutions for the issues above. 1) Digital fabrication can digitalize efforts of nursing, which means the micro inventions in home nursing can be shared, re-used and improved by interested parties worldwide through the Internet. 2) Digital fabrication can contribute to formalizing the process of development of nursing equipment so that the safety and the demarcation point of responsibility can be clarified.