Background to the Ostique project
Stephanie Monty, and her company Ostique, have come up with a range of new stoma bags which take the traditional clinical pouch into the realms of fashion. Working with the Cambridge Design Partnership along with ERDF Medical Devices Testing and Evaluation Centre, and the National Institute of Health Research Trauma Management MIC based at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Ostique will be designing and testing prototypes with human volunteers before they go into production.
Why is the Ostique project needed?
Every morning 200,000 people in the UK face a new day with a hole in their abdomen, a stoma, which necessitates wearing a stuck-on fabric ostomy bag over the opening to collect their waste (a colostomy bag). These people have had part of their bowel surgically removed, often due to cancer or bowel disease, and the physical changes post-surgery are compounded by the limitations of currently available appliances. This impacts on their physical and mental wellbeing, battering self-confidence, and making daily activities such as work, socialising and intimacy, fraught with anxiety.
What will happen during the Ostique project?
The study will enable the development of a new range of ostomy products that is designed to give people with stomas ‘freedom from the bag’ for up to 6 hours and can be worn while swimming, on the beach, in the gym, or during intimate occasions when exposing a typical ostomy bag would cause embarrassment.
More akin to fashion items than surgical appliances, the Ostique range will include embossed stoma covers that can be colour-matched to the user’s skin and a disposable waste-collection insert. Ostique’s patented designs will also test the use of innovative adhesives to reduce skin inflammation.
How can you be involved in the Ostique project?
We are currently looking for a number of individuals who have a stoma to help to deliver the study in a way that is acceptable to patients, this will be our focus group.
Our focus group will meet five times throughout the 18 month study – with each meeting lasting around 2 hours. You will be asked to consider issues relating to the design and delivery of the study and any materials intended for use by patients being invited to join the study. You will also provide input into the new device design from your own experience of living with a stoma.
Find out more about the Ostique project
The Ostique project is continuing during Covid-19 and we will update you on progress.