Contribution in the technical report

 The following part is one of the portion of my contribution to the technical report

3. Benefits of Solution

This section of the report is to show the benefits of using PLAnacea™ as the product material and the product features. 

3.1 Materials Used

• Polylactic Acid (PLA)

PLA is made from organic and renewable sources like sugarcane and cornstarch unlike plastic which are normally made from processing crude oil. PLA can reduce carbon footprint as well compared to plastic as it is made from crops that can absorb carbon dioxide as it grows. Additionally, PLA takes less energy to produce which means that it produces less greenhouse gases that are harmful to the environment (Barrett, 2020).

It is beneficial at its end-of-life usage as it is compostable and when it is incinerated, it generates less toxic fumes than plastics. Unlike plastic, recycling of PLA is not an issue as it can still be recycled even if it is contaminated by food and when PLA degrades, it turns into a non-toxic acid which means it is not harmful to humans (Barrett, 2020).

Therefore, by using PLA as the material to use for the medicine packaging, it would be an ideal solution to solve the issue of plastic pollution to the environment when it is disposed of.

3.2 Features

Figure 6

Top view for the inner part of PLAnacea™

Note : This picture shows the top view of the inner part of the PLAnacea™

The features included in PLAnacea™  will improve and solve the issues with current medicine packaging, benefiting the patients and the environment.

In figure 6, the canister is designed to contain up to three different types of pills with varying sizes depending on the number of types of pills needed in order to reduce the amount of plastic used to pack the medicine individually, and it can be easily opened to access the inner part of the canister to place the medicine into it. The pills would be packed separately into a strip-like blister and placed into the roller inside of the canister where the pills are able to be pulled out from the hole at the side of the canister. To avoid obstruction when pulling out different pills from the canister, a partition wall would be catered inside the canister to allow easy retrieval of the pills.

Figure 7

Front view of PLAnacea™

Note : This picture shows the top view of the PLAnacea™  with numerical and colour indicators on it, as well as braille for the visually impaired. This will be the top view of what the consumers will see.

Figure 8

Back view of the PLAnacea™

Note: This picture shows the back view of PLAnacea™ where it will have a prescription pasted on it that will indicate the type of medicine included in the packaging and instructions on which number to take the medicine required

In figure 7 and 8, the prescription of the pills would be labelled on one side of the outer part of the canister and on the other side, there would be a numerical and colour indicator which would be labelled from 1 to 3 and red, blue, purple respectively. 

This is to indicate the pills based on the prescription and knowing which medicine they are supposed to pull out for consumption. Braille would be provided alongside the numbers and colour indicators to cater to patients that are visually-impaired.

Critical Reflection

 Module Learning

At the start of the course, the goals I set were mainly to focus on improving and developing my communication skills, as well as my presentation and public speaking skills. While going through the course, I find myself immersed in topics such as critical thinking and critical reflections, which I am familiar with but have no in-depth knowledge about. Reaching the end of the course, I felt that I had gotten closer to achieving the goals I set. I also gained a few tips on how to improve my presentation skills, such as omitting filler words, standing in the right position, maintaining eye contact with the audience while presenting, and being confident in the presentation you are giving. As for my other goals with developing my communication skills, I want to learn about the usage of body language and how to give an effective speech.

To build on my communication skills, I try to have a goal set on what I want to convey and make sure that I can give a concise and clear speech to the person or audience I am speaking to while managing my tone and body language. Additionally, I ensure that I always attempt to listen to the person who is speaking so that they feel more engaged in what they are presenting about. As for building critical thinking skills, I try to draw connections between different topics and always analyze how I can solve any issue to improve my problem-solving skills.

To improve on these skills, which are correlated to my goals, I can actively set mini-goals for my future presentations, making sure I apply what I have learned in the past every time I can while communicating with others and always analyzing the problem that arises, whether it is in the team or the things I am doing.

 

Project learning

One of the primary focuses that I have had is to think about and come up with the benefits of our product for new medicine packaging. Throughout the brainstorming of our product’s benefits, I have seen the progress of how the team is able to convey their ideas to each other.

Reflecting on what I have learned about myself and others, I can see how each individual in the team has certain skills, such as presentation skills, writing skills, and teamwork skills, that they are more skilled in. As different people have different things they are good at, it complements others that are weak in a certain area. For instance, when doing the technical reports, we know our roles and what we are good at, which we would do more of in that area, where an example would be during a presentation. The ones who are more vocal and can present well would do the opening and closing. For writing a report, the people who are good at it would vet through the report and give constructive feedback on the parts that can be improved. The experience has certainly changed my view of learning, as I can now slightly see what I can improve on and work on the areas I am good at while also taking advice on the areas I am performing poorly in.

From this project experience, the best takeaway I have is to learn how to engage with different people in the group, as there are various types of people that I would work with. In order to make sure the team can have little to no conflicts, listening to the person while also providing them with constructive feedback is key to making sure everyone knows the issue within the team and improving teamwork between teammates.

Summary reader response draft 4

The article titled "Innovative Face Mask Breaks Inclusivity Barriers'' depicts the invention of 'Helloface', a 3-ply structure that is a good and creative replacement for Type IIR EN14683 medical face masks that is designed by Dean Ezekiel (University of Hertfordshire, n.d.). According to University of Hertfordshire(n.d.), the inspiration of the ‘Helloface’ mask came from his wife who is partially deaf and relies on lip-reading in order to understand the person she is talking to if she could not hear the person. As such, with the importance of having access to communication via lip reading and facial expressions and in addition to tackling the outbreak of Covid19, ‘Helloface’ mask was invented in hopes to solve the issue with communication by the hearing-impaired during the pandemic. Currently, there are two types of ‘Helloface’ masks available to the market namely the ‘transparent medical face mask’ and ‘P3 half mask respirator’. The ‘transparent medical face mask’ is a substitute for the Type IIR masks, which are non-reusable and made from TPE, which is recyclable and soft (Indiegogo, n.d.). The other variant, the ‘P3 half mask respirator’, is a reusable mask that can be used up to 30 times, and it is able to filter 99% of the air and provide excellent protection as it is airtight and sealed to the user's face (Indiegogo, n.d.).

The ‘Helloface’ mask has benefited the medical and healthcare sector with the mask being transparent, allowing full view of the healthcare worker’s face in order to allow lip reading and using TPE material that fits comfortably for the user to wear for a prolonged period. However, the cost may affect people’s choice of purchasing it.

The ‘Helloface’ mask can be beneficial to the medical sector as it is transparent, allowing full view of the healthcare worker’s face to aid them in communicating with the patients that have hearing disabilities by reading their lips and expression. According to the University of Hertfordshire(n.d.), there are 11 million of people in the UK that are registered as hearing-impaired or deaf. Additionally, an average of 1 out of 5 people in the UK has experienced issues with hearing loss and of those, there are 151,000 of people who interact with people using British Sign Language (Indiegogo, n.d.). Unfortunately, with most masks provided to the medical personnel in the market being largely opaque masks, there is a blockage of  vital ways of communication for the hearing impaired such as lip reading and facial recognition. Therefore, the features of the ‘Helloface’ mask solves the restriction of communicating with one another with just hand signals by being transparent and clear so individuals can read lips easily, and with anti-fogging glasses provided, users are able to communicate with one another without worrying the mask will fog up, blurring the user’s lips (Indiegogo, n.d.).

The other benefit of the ‘Helloface’ mask is its trait of being comfortable to wear as the other masks in the market are either uncomfortable to wear or unable to protect others well from user’s sprays. According to Esmaeilzadeh(2022), long usage of face masks may cause negative effects such as feeling unfit, tight, itchy, and fatigued, which may result in bilateral headaches. The comfort that the ‘Helloface’ mask is able to provide with qualities such as allowing the user to adjust the ear loop straps of the mask and the addition of it being made from flexible TPE material that caters to different faces or head shapes and sizes (Indiegogo, n.d.). In this way, users are able to wear the mask for extend period of time as needed.

However, the ‘Helloface’ masks are expensive as compared to masks such as surgical masks or N95. The price for a pack of 50 disposable surgical masks is as low as $10, with a pack of 100 between $12.75 and $20; and a pack of 10 industrial N95 masks found at hardware stores can be purchased for around $20 (Nesbit, 2022). With the price of the ‘Helloface’ masks being $22 for a pack of 5 for the normal transparent medical face mask and $51 for one P3 half mask respirator, according to the Indiegogo(n.d.), it might be a hard decision for a consumer to purchase a costly mask, let alone a person that is hearing impaired. Moreover, the usage of masks surges due to Covid19 will not be sustainable in the long run for people to purchase an expensive mask like the ‘Helloface’. 

In conclusion, the amount of evidence is sufficient to show how the benefits of the ‘Helloface’ mask stand out in the medical and healthcare sectors. However, the cost to purchase the ‘Helloface’ mask might be a setback even if it provides substantial amount of benefits as there are cheaper alternative masks that are more sustainable in the long run. In the end, the innovation of ‘Helloface’ masks is a great way to solve the issues of communication with people that have hearing disabilities, and with further improvement and adjustments to the features and cost, it would surely be used widely in the future.

References

Esmaeilzadeh, P. (2022, January 12). Public concerns and burdens associated with face mask-wearing: Lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. NCBI. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8752171/

Indiegogo. (n.d.). Helloface: CE Marked, Clear Face Masks. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/helloface-ce-marked-clear-face-masks#/

Nesbit, J. (2022, January 19). How Much Do Masks Really Cost? From Cloth to KN95, Here’s a Price Breakdown. Yahoo. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/much-masks-really-cost-cloth-174601985.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAGvaudlcxOAHn4P6nyecmGlEpVZdCaoONKz616o074WoeQ-XH5dP8kHQsUESj-Wm6OLePHDWvH-IPFO1jjF-xQu8LFrGat30UG8R

University of Hertfordshire. (n.d.). Helloface Innovative Face Mask. https://www.herts.ac.uk/enterprise-zone/news-and-case-studies/case-studies/business-incubation/innovative-face-mask-breaks-inclusivity-barriers

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