SMOS(Single Man Operated Stretcher)

This project aims to build an ergonomically sound stretcher for transporting sick people in Himalayan region of Nepal where the roads are not suitable for normal stretcher.

The project aims to make transport of sick people easy in Himalayan region of Nepal. In the mountainous region of the country, there is very narrow earthen road , where one can only walk. The terrain is so harsh that there is no roadway for vehicles till now. Approximately 1 million people are living in the remote Himalayan and hilly region of Nepal where there is no access to vehicle roadway. In case of medical emergency, the locals carry patients in doko(an indigenous wicked bamboo basket). The roads are so harsh that it is very difficult to use common stretchers. The main reason is the roads are not suitable to walk carrying those stretchers because they involve two people to carry. As of now, there is no clear idea when the roads will be built in these areas due to lack of money. Many Nepalese living in this region die due to lack of proper medical treatment at time. The main factor contributing to the problem is the topography of the area.

The team found the solution in Single Man Operated Stretcher (SMOS). SMOS is a purely mechanical medical transport device that aims to facilitate the transport process by allowing a single carrier to comfortably carry a patient on his back. This can have far reaching consequences in the situations where small duration can distinguish between life and death.

Upon research, the team reviewed on many literatures, their critical analysis and improved and modified the existing technologies. The team has worked extensively on the backdrops of the existing indigenous wicked basket and sought a method of Improving it in the form of SMOS. Equal priorities were given on the choice of materials to make it user friendly, comfortable, modular, familiar and easily adaptable to the local needs with our major constraint being dead weight of the device. The team sought to carry out a small sample survey on Kamala Mai Rural Municipality to study the acceptability of the device.

The team managed to use the principles of design keeping in view its functionality, proportion, aesthetics and ergonomics of the design to developing a scaled down model of SMOS to evaluate and test the feasibility of the design conducting load tests, surface tension test, mobility test.

The targeted population is the people with the lowest per capita income in Nepal. The population is capable of reading and writing. Most of the population is above 50 adults, children and women. The young males usually go to urban cities , abroad for employment. They lack access to basic health facilities, pure drinking water, primary education. The proposed solution aims to make it easy to transport people during medical emergency. The project considers comfort and safety for both the carrier and patient. The project uses indigenous technology and locally available raw material to make it easy for the locals to use and repair the product on their own.

My team is comprised of 3 members namely Nishan Subedi, Nitesh Neupane and myself Shree Ram Adhikari. We are sophomores studying Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering specialization in Design and Manufacturing at Kathmandu University, Nepal. We have Mr. Tejesh Man Shakya as our project supervisor. He is helping us with the design and aesthetics of product and we have Mr. Pratisthit Lal Shrestha as our advisor, he  guides us with the fabrication, mechanical and medical aspect of the product. My teammate Nishan is from mountain region of Nepal, he has observed it closely. He ids the one who pitched us this idea.

We have conducted survey in the region. My teammate also belongs from the same region so it was easy to identify the problem and have a conversation with the locals.

Our solution redesigns the existing doko and adds new features that we have studied in our engineering so far. Our solution tries to make the existing problem easy.

We look forward to develop a real scale prototype and conduct the various feasibility tests. 

The core technology involved is indigenous engineering. The solution is a result of indigenous technology re-engineered along with addition of aesthetic and ergonomic aspect.

The solution plans to serve the people of mountainous region of Nepal i.e. roughly a million people.

The current barriers are lack of expertise in working with the local raw material (bamboo) and also financial support to carry out the project. We also lack appropriate online or offline literature and resources.

We have been guided by our university. We were assigned a supervisor and advisor for our project.

We don't have any business model yet. We are currently focused on developing the solution. The product analysis and market analysis is yet to be done.

Our university funded us with $38 grant for four months with necessary workspace and advisor. Until the product is done we look forward for further help from our university.