Designing a Portable Gynecological Examination Table: Improving Access to Antenatal Care in Rural Ghana

Regular pelvic examinations and health care visits are important preventative measures for maintaining maternal health. However, in rural settings within the least developed countries, poor travel conditions, lack of resources, social constraints, lack of educational opportunities, and economic limitations make it difficult for women to receive proper healthcare during pregnancy. The goal of this design project is to diminish the barrier of transportation to secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities and services by developing a portable gynecological examination table for use by Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) workers in the Sene District, Ghana. Design for global health is a topic of increasing importance and places new constraints on the engineering design process. Throughout the design process, Ghanaian and American clinicians were interviewed in order to obtain user requirements for the initial prototype. These requirements were translated into engineering specifications, and brainstorming and functional decomposition were performed in order to generate solution concepts. In agreement with the engineering specifications and the outcomes of quality function deployment (QFD) and Pugh charts, a portable gynecological examination table prototype was designed that 1) supports a weight of 142 kg while only weighing 10 kg, 2) can be folded into a 17.8×50.8×50.8 cm3 volume enabling transportation by backpack, 3) costs less than $100, 4) can be cleaned with bleach, and 5) has three adjustable back angles of 0, 30, and 60 degrees. This prototype was fabricated and then evaluated in Ghana, brought back to the UNIVERSITY, and redesigned. The redesigned prototype was evaluated to meet the specifications for table weight, support weight, ability to be cleaned, and durability in a laboratory testing. The table was then returned to Ghana, where acceptance of the design and its usability were assessed by interviewing and surveying midwives, physicians, and mothers.