Points to Keep in Mind
1. When developing a medical device, have you considered biological differences such as sex differences in patterns of heart disease?
2. When designing sports equipment, have you considered sex differences in height and weight?
3. When designing wearables and ergonomic solutions, have you considered biological differences such as size and physiology?
Products
A tech company is planning to design a wearable to detect early signs of heart disease. Recognizing that men and women have different patterns of heart disease can enhance the usability and uptake of the device.
A U.S. federal law opened military piloting to women in the 1990s, but the Air Force soon learned that not only rules but also the technology of the cockpit excluded women. Cockpits were built to accommodate for 5th to 95th percentile of U.S. men by height and weight—precisely those traditionally recruited into the Air Force. This design excluded 10% of U.S. men but 50-65% of U.S. women. For the law to be implemented, cockpits had to be redesigned to accommodate women. Redesigning cockpits for smaller people, opened military and commercial piloting also to smaller men. As is often the case, what was good for women was also good for men.
Overall, there is a lack of evidence that female-specific prostheses improve women’s total knee arthroplasty outcomes. Overemphasizing sex differences is a problem, especially when companies market female-specific knees directly to women without evidence of clinical advantages.
Design Methods
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Analyzing Sex: Sex is about biological characteristics such as height, weight, physiology. Sex includes: Male, female and intersex (< 2% of the population).
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Analyzing Sex and Gender: Sex and gender are distinct terms.
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Engineering Checklist: Determining the relevance of sex; Key questions for incorporating sex and gender analysis.