Designers inspired by improving lives

Third place at the James Dyson Award also focused on those recovering from stroke, particularly those experiencing swallowing difficulties.

Dysphagia Dynamics is a smart assessment, monitoring and rehabilitation platform designed for patients with post-stroke dysphagia, and consists of a wearable neck device and health management software.

The rehabilitation program is designed to assist patients in swallowing, and consists of a swallowing disorder assessment, monitoring and rehabilitation training platform specifically designed for patients with post-stroke dysphagia. It comprises wearable hardware for the neck and accompanying post-stroke dysphagia health management software that can be connected to various medical hardware.

According to Yin Nan, a member of the team behind the medical device, dysphagia is one of the most common complications after stroke, and at present there is a lack of low-cost and noninvasive means for assessment and intervention.

"These patients are leading a low-quality life, and their families are under a great burden too," said Yin, 24, a postgraduate student at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Although development is still in its initial stages, Yin said the team is optimizing and improving the hardware and software to expand testing to different patient groups with varied conditions, so as to upgrade the device to better meet the clinical needs of patients.