The Contemporary Speculum: Agency through Innovation

by Isobel Baker

The speculum redesign next to an infographic poster about the device to help make patients feel more comfortable and informed during their examinations.

Project Description

Pelvic examinations are critical for assessing and managing gynaecological health. Therefore, they are an important aspect of general health. Despite this, many people feel strong negative emotions such as fear, anxiety, and embarrassment when experiencing these exams and procedures. This can cause to patients to delay or avoid care, which can lead to significant health consequences. One of the reasons for a lot of patient discomfort during these exams and procedures is the vaginal speculum.

The history of the speculum paints a picture of a lack of innovation, pointing towards a historical absence of care in designing solutions that emphasise the patient’s comfort. Though a handful of 21st-century redesigns have been attempted, these have rarely been successful in the industry, and have not been reviewed extensively in academic literature. This disparity is causing a lack of modernisation in what should be a large and competitive design field. It also reinforces attitudes and beliefs that the current speculum designs do not need revisiting.

My project endeavoured to challenge these attitudes and beliefs by redesigning the speculum from a patient-focused perspective. The process involved rigorous design research that enabled me to come up with four key points my design needed to hit: aesthetic appearance, no pinch-points, temperature neutral material, and facilitation of self-insertion. This led me to my final design: a speculum made to help enable a more positive patient experience. It is designed to allow for comfortable self-insertion if the patient so wishes. This gives agency to the patient during an experience in which they often feel vulnerable.

This project is a small piece of design that strives to help close the gap in the design of gynaecological products, further disproving the long-held notion that people should just lie back and learn to bear it.

A view of the speculum in the orientation that it would be in for comfortable self-insertion.

A functional model featuring the speculum in the open position. The handle comfortably fits the patient’s fingers and is pulled upwards to open. The pull handle of the device allows the handle to run along a rail and lock into the appropriate opening diameter (this is unique from person to person). This pull handle is attached to silicone elastic bands to open the blades of the speculum. The blades are attached to the main body via four hinges.

The Graves speculum next to my redesign. The Graves speculum was designed in 1878 and is still used today!

Bio

As a designer, Isobel is passionate about creating meaningful solutions to complex problems. She believes in designing from a human-centric perspective and making purposeful efforts towards a more inclusively designed world. Isobel aspires always to be challenged in her work and looks forward to contributing to the future of Australian design.

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