Sharkmedical – developing medical innovation and accelerating international growth through design cooperation

Together with Sharkmedical, we designed the company’s first own product, the ShareGuard99® for individual air purification and isolation. Bringing a class 1 medical device innovation to the market without prior experience is not a one-off. Sharkmedical got almost everything they needed for the design and commercialization of the device under one roof from Seos.

Sharkmedical approached us in the spring of 2020 during the corona pandemic that reached Finland, with the aim of developing and commercializing a solution that would effectively prevent respiratory infections in healthcare facilities. Our cooperation started with a simple, completely disposable protection solution that would enable the isolation of the patient also during treatment procedures. The development of the new product started from scratch: it was the company’s first own product, and a completely new medical device innovation.
The end result of two and a half years of development was ShareGuard99®, an innovation for individual air purification and isolation. As a result of numerous development and testing iterations and end-user research, a simple disposable shield evolved into a powerful, Class 1 CE-marked medical device. The new product was launched in November 2022 under the simultaneously launched new subsidiary brand, Sharkmedical Innovations.

The drivers of ShareGuard99®’s design were the safety of the medical staff and the patient, ease of use and ease of use, and enabling the widest possible range of treatment procedures during isolation. In addition, its goal was to create an easily approachable, understandable, and reliable design language and to define Sharkmedical’s characteristic design DNA on the product interface. The usability design of the product and its user interface was made using the standard IEC 62366-1.

The operation of ShareGuard99® is based on the isolation of the patient’s air space and the active removal of aerosol particles that cause infections. It achieves FFP3-level filtration efficiency even during treatment procedures with which it would not normally succeed. The innovation enables a more effective fight against airborne infections in healthcare facilities than at present, as well as a more efficient use of the facilities, reducing sickness absences for medical staff and the burden on healthcare.

”From the beginning, the end-user experience was seen as central to the design of our innovation. The ease and effortlessness of using a medical device is particularly important in today’s hectic nursing work. Seos Design was able to meet this requirement in a very professional manner, and we are particularly satisfied with the final result of the product development. ShareGuard99® represents Finnish design, which we can proudly take to the international market”

– Topi Haikala, CEO, Sharkmed Oy

Together with Sharkmedical, we also designed a service model linked to the product. The service model defines the stages and operating methods of service production related to the device, such as how the device is marketed and sold, what its production chains are like and how, for example, the after-sales service works. It can be used to identify the measures required to commercialize a new product.

Our cooperation with Sharkmedical is built on mutual trust, the goal of which is to help Sharkmedical grow into an even more credible and internationally significant provider of medical solutions. Seos Design’s long experience in the development of medical devices and our familiar and reliable network of experts made it possible to support Sharkmedical’s team of health care professionals in the best possible way. In addition, Sharkmedical received almost everything needed to bring a new product to market under the same roof.

In addition to the product development that took place in cooperation with several partners and the design work we led, we have handled project management, designed the device’s user manual and packaging with markings, and produced a comprehensive package of various service certificates as well as sales and marketing materials. As the company’s strategic design partner, we have helped sharpen and brighten Sharkmedical’s brand to better reflect the credibility and professionalism of their experts.

We designed and scripted numerous videos for the sale and marketing of the device, such as the device presentation video above. The videos were made in close cooperation with North Arrow Films , who filmed, produced and edited the videos.

www.sharkmed.fi

www.sharkmedicalinnovations.com

www.shmt.fi

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