Ashley Lowber
Mechanical Engineering Portfolio
Pathfinder (Repath System)
The Pathfinder bin is a sorting and data tracking product which enables discarded devices and high value materials to enter the Repath system of recollection, decontamination, recycling, and distribution of recycled materials to enrolled parties across industries. It allows for traceability of materials from point-of-origin (OR room) through to distribution by utilizing sensors that send data to the Repath Database, which is used to organize and send appropriate data to stakeholder groups (i.e. the Repath orchestrator/operator, the manufacturers, the recycling center, and the hospitals) sorting. This solution also successfully met our objective of creating a system that is minimally invasive to the standard operations of medical professionals.
Context
Team sponsor Johnson & Johnson tasked us with creating a solution that can position their company as a leader when it comes to creating a circular economy within the MedTech and Healthcare sectors. With waste (especially of plastics and metals) being so rampant within surgical practice due to single use devices, our team set out to create a product and a system that could extend product life cycles for medical device manufacturers.