Your Ideas for a New Cycler

[DMBman]

Hi,

My name is Stephen and I am a senior in Industrial Design in the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I have devoted my senior year to learning all I can about at home PD and am now basing my senior thesis on a redesign of at home PD cyclers. My professor was the one to set me on the track, as his wife was on Baxter's Home Choice machine for 2 years before passing away this past December. He's helped me a lot in guiding me to a new successful design, but now I have found this wonderful website and I've read about all the great ideas and setups people have made for themselves. And now I thought I would just ask you all directly, I want to know everything you've ever wanted in a at home cycler. Any ideas, big or small, would be greatly appreciated and then maybe in the end, we can have a great product designed that I could present, and maybe even to Baxter as something they should take into consideration (I have friends working in development there). I'd like to thank you for your time and greatly appreciate any help or ideas you have.

Thank you,
Stephen Diebold (DMBman)


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Stephen Diebold
Industrial Design
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Diebold.Stephen@gmail.com
www.wix.com/sdiebold/stephen-diebold

[paul.karen]

I use the baxter homechoice and there isnt much room for improvement.  Maybe bettter insulation to quiet the machine down when pumping fluid into and out of us.   other then that the machine isnt overly large or hard to learn how to use.  Most people i have spoken to are more upset at the room you need to store all the supplies needed for the machine.

[Ken Shelmerdine]

What about a remote control so that you can reset the cycler when it is alarming without getting out of bed. Also a much smaller machine which you can place unobtrusively in another room with extentended lines but with an alarm speaker in your bedroom so you can hear any alarms and not disturb your partner if he or she is sleeping in another bedroom.

Also, although the cycler is in a different room, keep the drain bag at the side eof the bed as normal so as not to affect draining. When I did PD the pumping noise of the machine used to quite often wake me up so a machine in a remote position with a remote control would be a huge improvement.

Good luck Stephen and please keep in touch with IHD and tell us of your progress.

[DMBman]

As I look at the problems more and more, it really is sad how much companies make you stock pile materials. Some people just dont have that space, but I feel that that is one huge problem that could be fixed with new solution mixes maybe or way to sterilize equipment easier at home. But as of now, I plan to focus more on the interface and the design of the machine, and I think the remote control and extended lines to another room are a wonderful idea. I thought the same thing about a week ago.

[*kana*]

I use the Liberty, but here is my input.

I'd like a smaller/lighter machine so we could travel easier. 
The remote control idea is awesome!
Design it so it has a 50 foot patient to machine tubing so I can make it to the fridge for a sip of kool-aid at 3 in morning or let the dog out to pee.
Make it quieter so my neighbors don't wonder what that rhythmic noise is all night long.  Yeah right, I so wish it were something else.    

[Restorer]

Just gonna brainstorm some ideas, because I can't think straight this morning:
(I'm currently on the Fresenius Liberty, by the way. I don't have any experience with Baxter cyclers.)

- Smarter alarms for the drain cycle. If it's expecting an initial drain of 1000 ml and it doesn't drain anything in the first 2 or 3 minutes, that's the time for an alarm, not 20 minutes later when it times out. Sometimes I forget to unclamp the line.

- The ability to tell it, "No wait, you/I screwed up. I need to go back a couple steps." Let's say you're connecting the bags, and find just ONE of them is leaking. It would be nice to not have to start all over and waste the good bags and cassette. Or, as happened to me the other night: the cycler was expecting 0 initial drain because I go dry during the day. But I also do a manual fill in the evening, so it actually had 1500 ml to drain. As it was draining, the line got kinked after 150 ml. It decided that meant I was empty, so it went on to fill. That would have filled me with a total of almost 3400 ml. I wanted to tell it, "Wait, you guessed wrong. Go back and try that drain again."

- On that line of thought, it would be nice to be able to tell it that I'm doing manual exchanges during the day. To tell it what drain to expect on the initial drain.

I'm sure there are other things, but they're not coming to mind at the moment.

[lunadatura]

1) smaller and more portable - the baxter home choices is the size of like three bread boxes and too heavy and awkward for a feeble kidney patient to easily transport and I would like to be able to travel with it more easily. seems to me most of its heft is the overly large heating surface - which you dont really need since you can use a heating pad.

2) more responsive digital display - could be more individualize programmable and more responsive to error resolution like aforementioned

3) I LOVE THE REMOTE CONTROL IDEA - I SO WANT ONE FOR MY MACINE

4) cassettes with optional lengths - they seem to only come in one length

[bmevans]

I would like a wearable robotic kidney that dialyzes 24 hours a day, weighs 1-2 LBS and is indestructible!
I use the Baxter Home Choice and after 6 years, I'm tired of being tied to the machine.  I want FREEDOM
and I know this technology is out there if these mega-dialysis companies don't sabotage the ideas and designs.
I wish you the best!   

[jg]

Stephen:

I used to do pd with the Baxter Home Choice.
One thing that made it difficult was the noise' waking me  up.
But it wasn't a continuous noise. I believe it was the noise from the heating unit warming up the
top solution bag. It would be good if there was insulation to keep the bag warmer or
to make the noise lower. Also in that regard, my dwell time was 1 hour 26 minutes.
But the heater seemed to be on the full 1 hour 26 minutes. What about it only being on
for say 20 minutes before the next exchange  - enough time to warm the bag.

Good Luck
jg

[in2trbl2]

well now that your asking..the remote idea is awesome, I'd like a timer function for walk away cycle, I work from noon to 8 pm m2f , so I get home grab a bite and hook up for a walk away, then 2 hrs later ( around midnight) I flip over to the night time 3 exchange cycle.. in real life I fall asleep hooked up, and wake up at 4 am and have to start night time cycle  then have to run short in order to make it to work on time, a timed cycle on the walk away would alow me to sleep and still get my full cycles in

[murf]

A machine that allows you to be on PD as long as you like. I am told that after a few years, you must go onto hemo.

[Ken Shelmerdine]

DMBman Are you still reading this thread. Can you post to tell us how you are progressing?

[lorna]

I was on pd with a home choice for 4 years and miss it so much. I would have to many compaints but also cant say i loved it. One thing that always worried me was power outages , i think there needs to be a better solution to deal with that and even to be able to take your machine and dialyse and heat the bags if there is no power. ex camping or going to a cabin. Also i used a drain line and clamped it to drain into my ensuite toilet but the smell was overpowering since it sat there all night, The drain bags are super hard to pick up and forsure need a handle to grab! The space all the supplies takes up is endless and there is a huge amount of garbage because you are throwing away bags and lines every night so the less needed/used the better! Also i used a tv stand on wheels that had different levels of shelves to sit my cycler on but something developed  speciffically for the cycler with a place for the cycler/bags/clamps/caps ect would be great!  Also with an adjustable height so you can have it in the right position according to your bed. And as many have said a smaller machine to make traveling easier would be so great! If you need any more help or info just ask, no one is better informed than someone on pd!

[KICKSTART]

A machine that allows you to be on PD as long as you like. I am told that after a few years, you must go onto hemo.

Sadly Murph it has nothing to do with the machine. Pd lasts only as long as your Peritoneum and when that wears out (from acting as a filter) then you have no choice but to do pd.

[Henry P Snicklesnorter]

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