The evolution of inhalation therapy.

Kolibri

Pocket-sized nebulizer

The Challenge

Designing a compact and easy-to-manage nebulizer that would offer a noticeable advantage over the bulky devices available on the market and differentiate in terms of usability, design and costs.

The Solution

Kolibri is an exceptionally user-friendly & simple-to-use pocket-sized nebulizer. The accompanying app is fun to use and ensures the user inhales properly, allowing the medication to work effectively.

Our vision

Our vision was to design a pocket-sized nebulizer coming with an app that helps patients to manage everyday therapy with their various medications.

Similar to the size of common asthma sprays, users can easily put the Kolibri nebulizer in their pocket and take it with them everywhere - a result of a clear focus on what matters most to patients and a targeted technology development.

Ease and efficiency

In terms of design, the Kolibri resembles a consumer product without losing the appearance of a pharmaceutical product.

It consists of four simple parts only: the lower part containing the aerosol generator, the mouthpiece, head and head housing. This allows an extraordinarily easy handling, cleaning and sterilization.

Such radical simplification took close collaboration between engineers and designers, a lot of testing and many design iterations - each one absolutely worthwhile considering the outcome: a true pioneer in regard to ease of use.

A 360-degree user experience

The Kolibri mesh-nebulizer is embedded in a digital eco-system: Pulmotree Connect.

In use, the Kolibri generates data about inhalation technique & adherence and transfers these directly to the Pulmotree Connect Cloud or the Pulmotree Connect app for smart phones. This way, patients get support & feedback with therapy plans, easy-to-understand instructions & real time inhalation technique and gain full insights in the treatment process.

Monitoring devices such as spirometers also transfer relevant data to the cloud so that physicians can directly access to monitor and interpret the patient‘s therapy development. Pharmaceutical companies conducting clinical studies, on the other hand, can better evaluate new products and reduce risks.

Increasing inhalation effectiveness

A special feature of the app is the way it encourages the user to inhale properly, which sets the basis of the medication being effective. It is fun to use which not only helps children enormously but also motivates adults to make the most out of their medical treatment.

Highlights & Capabilities

Setting up a design sprint to catapult us forward.

We decided to start the program with a design sprint to identify opportunities and reality-check our assumptions. This sprint enabled us to bring a wide variety of new ideas to the table, evaluate and decide on a direction very quickly.

‍User research.

Since user-centricity is an integral part of our design process, it was obvious to reflect our concepts with real patients, their needs and habits. In this process we could also clarify and sharpen the product’s value proposition.

Many questions had to be clarified, such as how the nebulizer can fit into different life situations - from a 5-year old cystic fibrosis patient to active asthma patients in their 30ies to a 70-year old suffering from COPD.