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ThinkRevolutionist: Design That Matters

Serving underprivileged communities from Haiti to Mali to Vietnam, nonprofit Design that Matters (DtM) is committed to helping treat easily curable diseases like jaundice, hypothermia and pneumonia using simply yet ingeniously designed medical devices.

Better design at every heartbeat

Millions of newborns could be saved each year around the world if only they were kept warm during the first three days of life. It’s solving these types of apparently straightforward yet intractably complex challenges that drives DtM.

Each healthcare project begins with a simple premise: Empathy can lead to better outcomes. Listening to the needs of their users – often for easy-to-operate and affordable healthcare solutions – DtM has been able to push the limits of rapid prototyping and low-volume manufacturing to deliver products to people desperate for a better quality of life.

The results:

  • Pelican, a portable pulse oximeter that allows low-skilled community health works to quickly diagnose newborn pneumonia
  • Otter, a simple and easily cleaned newborn conductive warmer to prevent hypothermia
  • Firefly, the world’s most effective newborn phototherapy device for low-resource hospitals – used in more than 20 countries by over 35,000 newborns to date

Bringing change to where it’s needed most

From its headquarters in Salem, Massachusetts, to clinics all over the world, DtM and its teams need reliable computing power for problem-solving that knows no boundaries. That’s why they use the full range of Lenovo workstations, including the ThinkStation P910 for its unmatched processing speeds and the ThinkPad P40 Yoga for sketching out in the field.

"I want to design for outcomes. I didn't want to make beautiful stuff. I want to make the world a better place." Tim Prestero, DtM founder and CEO

Check out what's in Design That Matter's design labs: ThinkPad P40 Yoga and ThinkStation P910

Latest Blog Updates

On the Road to Better Health

On the Road to Better Health The Design that Matters team recently traveled the backroads of northern Vietnam carrying special cargo: the first Otter Newborn Warmer prototype. The trip’s goal? To test the durable, washable warming bassinet with the kinds of doctors and nurses who will …

Otter Design Update

Otter Design Update At the end of July, the Design that Matter’s team focused on the Otter summer design. They took all of the research and feedback they’d received through the previous weeks and turned their attention to prototype fabrication. The team moved …

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