What Color is Hope?

You get the call. The one you pray you’ll never get. You arrive at the ICU to find your loved one on life support. Hoses and tubes obscure their face and connect them to large, intimidating machines. And the sound – the rhythmic whir and schooock of the massive ventilator breathing life into their too still body – rocks you to your core. As their eyes finally open, you muster a brave face. Yet you find your own breath catching in your throat… in dreaded anticipation… if that whir and schooock ceases – one heart will stop; and yours will break.

Recent studies have proven what many have long known: ICU patients need more than mere dependable delivery of oxygen. They need hope.

 

What Color is Hope?

“We found that the role psychosocial factors play in surgical recovery was even bigger than we expected,” said Peter Jokl, MD, Yale University School of Medicine. The conclusion of the Yale study was clear, how patients and loved ones feel can play an important role in patient recovery.

Leveraging a multi-year relationship, Hamilton Medical enlisted RKS to create a design for their new, light-weight ventilator that would take ventilator offerings to the next level. Through use of their proprietary Psycho-Aesthetics® methodology, RKS determined that improving the experiences of medical personnel, patients, and loved ones would be about much more than delivering cutting-edge technology.


 

What Color is Hope?

“When you see someone you love hooked up to these huge, industrial-looking machines, no matter what the doctors say, a piece of you starts making funeral plans,” said Ravi Sawhney, RKS founder and C.E.O. “That feeling can’t help but affect everyone in the room.”

“Psycho-Aesthetics empowers our team to ‘design what you can’t see,’” explained Tom White, Executive Vice President of RKS. “In an ICU, emotions can have a powerful effect – from doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists who can do their job more calmly and effectively, to patients and loved ones who profoundly benefit from a more positive emotional environment.”


 

What Color is Hope?

In contrast to competing ventilators which look like diagnostic tools you might find in an auto repair center, the design language of the C2 is inviting and reassuring. It leans forward, engagingly, offering a confident and smart display. The C2 evokes a friendly personality while still giving everyone in the room confidence that it’s a ventilator upon which you can trust your life.

The approachable and intuitive screen tilts to accommodate different operator positions. The C2 features Hamilton’s unique “Ventilation Cockpit” with an intelligent touch-screen interface that gives operators a quick, at-a-glance, dashboard display of key information, reducing pressure on operators and helping minimize errors.


 

What Color is Hope?

With inbuilt batteries and weighing under 21 pounds the C2 can accompany a patient anywhere within the hospital, independently of central gas and power supplies. Patients don’t have to be disconnected for transport, increasing patient safety and comfort, while at the same time reducing operator workload. The C2 can be used on a countertop, rolling stand, or carried with the built-in handle that nestles into the top of the unit when not in use.

When you’re on a ventilator, you need more just than oxygen… you need to look up and see the face of hope looking back at you. The C2 is designed to spread calm and reassurance through the ICU as it breathes life into patients.