A six-year design research project that reimagined the hospital gown from the patient out. The result protects wheelchair users, preserves dignity, keeps IV lines connected, and won multiple innovation awards. Currently pursuing patents.
Who We Worked With
UVM Design for America
Partners
Frankie Day-Lyon
Services
Research & Strategy, Product & Experience
Project Fun Fact
6-year multi-stakeholder design process
The hospital gown is dangerous. We redesigned it from the patient out.
Hospital gowns are humiliating, confusing, and — for a lot of patients — actually dangerous. People who use wheelchairs get caught in the straps and thrown from their chairs. Patients with limited dexterity can’t tie them without help. Nurses have to fully disconnect IV lines just to change one. For decades, the design hasn’t changed. We changed it.
Recovery Robe started when medical student Dr. Lillian Chang brought us a problem: her patients were being harmed by the thing they were wearing. We assembled a team of designers, patients, and clinicians and ran a six-year multi-stakeholder design process — starting not with the gown, but with the people inside it.
We interviewed people who use wheelchairs, people with dexterity challenges, teenagers wearing two gowns for dignity, nurses burning time on IV disconnections, and patients navigating the hospital completely alone. We prototyped dozens of designs out of anything we could find — industrial paper towels, construction paper, old fabric — and tested relentlessly.
The result is a gown that lets nurses access any area on a patient without compromising dignity. IV lines stay connected. People who use wheelchairs stay safe. The gown requires no hand dexterity and only broad arm motions toward the front of the body. It fits all body types. And it looks and feels like clothing, not a costume.
Recovery Robe won 1st Place Startup at Launch VT Collegiate, 1st Place at the UVM Business Pitch Competition, and received the UVM Biomedical Innovation Grant.
The project is currently pursuing patents.
Note: Detailed photos and specific design elements are available only under NDA due to US Patent Law requirements. Contact us to learn more.
