AU MedPak: Medical Backpack

In 2018, CADC faculty Scott Kramer and Randy Bartlett began collaborating on the development of a medical backpack, which could be used by medical missionaries, especially when working in rural or remote areas that are not accessible by car. The backpacks are intended to hold all the supplies a professional medic needs to diagnose and treat a number of minor and more life-threatening illnesses.

Students in Professor Bartlett’s industrial design studio created a set of designs and then worked to create prototype backpacks. Professors Kramer and Bartlett received initial feedback and refined the design. They are now working to conduct field tests of the backpacks with seven different groups Through this testing it has become clear that the backpacks could have usefulness in a number of other contexts, including rural healthcare in the United States. The team presented their initial work at the Auburn Faculty Research Symposium in January 2021.

Scott Kramer is Atlanta Auburn BSCI Alumni Committee Endowed Professor in the McWhorter School of Building Science and Randall Bartlett is Professor in the School of Industrial and Graphic Design.

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