Trompe is a respiratory support for premature babies. Trompe is used to treat preterm infants whose lungs have not fully developed and to improve their survival. It provides mild air pressure to keep the airways open and prevent them from collapsing or becoming blocked.

During our research, we came up to three major problems premature babies under respiratory treatment were suffering of :

- The pulling forces of the device and pulling tubes deform the baby's face and nose:
Existing masks are too tight and are pulled by the air tubes, which is why skin lesions and face/nose deformations occur. When it comes to fragile premature babies, the challenge was to prevent these injuries by providing a forceless respiratory mask.

- The application of the device on the baby is difficult:
Existing masks are too difficult to apply and reposition for nurses, which is why treatment's discontinuation occurs and disturbs the baby's growth. When it comes to 5 to 20 interactions with the mask per day, challenge was to facilitate the application by nurses on the baby by providing an intuitive and repositionable helmet/mask combination.

- The heavy equipment on the baby is frightening to the parents:
Existing equipment on the baby is visually heavy and covers baby’s face, which is why parents are usually frightened by the look of the complex equipment. When it comes to connecting the baby, the challenge was to eliminate the visual complexity by providing a minimalistic, empathic and friendly connection from the respiratory machine to the baby.

Our collaborating company (Names are unfortunately kept confidential) formerly asked us to simply design a more comfortable and ergonomic respiratory mask for premature babies. During our initial research, we quickly realized that the problems were coming from the entire system. More than simply thinking about the patients, we leveraged solutions to help nurses in their everyday work to be more comfortable and effective.

Because the experience of having a premature baby under a heavily complex respiratory system can be scary and frustrating for parents and siblings, we decided to tackle this issue as well.

More than simply answering a question, we holistically targeted the source of problems for all users (patient, nurses and parents) and solved them by creating a simplified and friendlier device.

Trompe has been designed in strong cooperation with professional intensive premature care personnel from the Umea hospital (Norrlands universitetssjukhus, Sweden) and life science design professional (Names and company name are unfortunately kept confidential). The project was carried out through extensive research and continuous feedback from doctors, nurses, medical engineers in respiratory systems and kangaroo care experts. The research has been completed in five weeks and the design and development of the product in five other weeks (for a total of ten intensive weeks).

Trompe is the result of laborious user research including:

- Interviews with engineers and operators. We gathered data and technical background on the highly technical machines that deliver air, temperature, humidity and pressure to the babies. The technical information and calculations were a challenge to understand.

- Close interaction and user research with nurses in critical care for premature babies.

We followed, filmed, analyzed, understood and practiced their everyday life during a few days in the field. We regularly met a team of five nurses at the hospital to follow up and improve our understanding on how we could fix problems and understand and consider their wishes.

- Close interaction with doctors and professors about premature babies.

It is fascinating to understand what premature babies are suffering from and feel. We interviewed doctors to understand what the patients (premature babies) in critical care needed to recover and survive.

- Full scale model making. We created adult versions of the respiratory masks to understand better what problems premature babies were facing. It was a unique technique we haven’t seen before. It was really helpful to understand what babies couldn’t speak about.

- Collaboration with experienced life science designers helped us to craft the best design solution for the patients, nurses and parents. It is important to work with experienced people. They shared with us tons of details and design tips that are specific to the life science products.

- Follow up with life science engineers during the design of the technical parts. Patents survey and registration. Manufacturing and cost evaluation. All parts can be produced by standard production methods. The helmet and elephant are hypoallergenic and made of a washable fabric.

Trompe is a holistic solution to the three majors problems experienced by premature babies, nurses and parents:

- The pulling forces of the device and pulling tubes deform the baby's face and nose:
Trompe solves the problem of poor ergonomics by reducing the forces apply on the mask through three mechanical innovations. It is designed to ensure the comfort of the premature baby by eliminating forces and pressure on the baby's face. For the baby, our solution results on growing without any face deformations and eliminate skin lesions.

- The application of the device on the baby is difficult:
Trompe solves the problem of difficult application by reducing the number of steps required to apply the mask. It is designed to ensure the nurse can apply the helmet/mask in any particular order by providing a simple frontal fixation. For the nurse, our solution results on an easy application and maintenance, saving time and effort.

- The heavy equipment on the baby is frightening to the parents:
Trompe solves the problem of a technical, invasive, and thus frightening appearance of the device to the parents. It undermines the product’s necessity and importance of enhancing the parent-baby bond created by kangaroo care. Fostering empathy towards parents and nurses was key. For the parents our solution results in a friendly and hug compatible device.