Education
Spring Spec
A self-adjusting vaginal speculum to improve both patient and physician experiences. 2014.
The Pap test is the most common gynecological exam and is necessary to screen for several illnesses. Doctors recommend women have their first test by age 21, and continue to have them every 1-3 years.
However, the first modern speculum was developed in 1870 by Marion Sims and contemporary specula are modeled after the Graves speculum, which was introduced less than a decade later in 1878.
Inactive.
Cut and formed from a spring steel body to set a maximum spread and pressure. The simple fold at the bottom has no screws or edges to tangle skin or hair, and no mechanism to rattle and scrape with adjustment. The edges and tips of the tool are curved inward to keep from scraping sensitive tissue.
Active.
Lowered wings along the handle shield the physician's hand from any pinch points, and when fully compressed the offset, tapered top and bottom of the tool front never fully close, to protect the patient. Physicians are more likely to hurt the patient during insertion or retraction, so simplifying operation to one-handed compression keeps the focus on this more difficult part of the test.
Modules
Form study inspired by the Ulm School. Spray-painted MDF, blood, sweat, tears. 2013.
