British tech company Dyson awards IIT Kanpur student for developing retrofit patient transfer system

tech2 News StaffSep 08, 2017 18:42:55 IST

The James Dyson Foundation on behalf of British tech company Dyson today announced the first India-leg winner of the James Dyson Award. The award was won by Asish Mohandas, a product design student of IIT Kanpur for the development of his retrofit patient transfer system product named MAATTAM.

National Winner of James Dyson Award, India: Asish Mohandas of IIT-Kanpur.

The MAATTAM retrofit patient transfer system was designed as a part of the student's final year degree project and aims at efficiently transferring patients without causing any pain to them. The mechanism works similar to a treadmill comprising a moving platform with a wide conveyor fabric belt and rollers on either end. MAATTAM being a retrofit can be placed on top of any wheeled stretcher with flat top surface and height adjustment facility, converting it into a transfer stretcher.

The retrofit stretcher is capable of transferring an adult up to 180 cm in height and weight of up to 95 kg. Asish Mohandas who created the system said, “I resolved to design MAATTAM as I surveyed amongst doctors, nurses, ward boys to conclude that the majority of hospitals and clinics in India do not have efficient stretchers that transfer patients without any pain," explaining what encouraged him to create MAATAM.

"It will also ensure evading the problem of spine disorders while shifting. I strongly felt that creating medical equipment like this would impact and help the needy at large," added Mohandas.

The university-level award which operates in 23 countries extended to India this year, for the first time and looks for simple designs with the potential to impact society.The winner, Asish Mohandas will now run for the international stage of the award, running for a prize money of 30,000 pounds.

Accompanying MAATTAM were four runners-up awards — these include the Eco-Friendly faucet, Railroad crack detection bot, QuiSmo and Saviour. The winner of the International leg will be announced on 26 October 2017.