Our Team Creates Answers to Intricate Health Care Product Development Challenges

Zift Medical is a Minnesota based start-up, creating a new ground breaking aesthetic medicine device for brow lifts. Their new medical device and procedure (a ZiftLift®) has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of brow lifts while delivering similar results with faster recovery time. The procedure involves a nitinol and titanium implant and hand-held delivery system. Zift came to LAVA Design to help design a cost effective delivery system for the ZiftLift procedure that could be used for both implant testing and refinement and a First-in-Human clinical study. LAVA Design not only addressed delivery device engineering challenges but to also created intelligent innovations, crafted a more ergonomic design, and generated IP along the way.

The ZiftLift Solution

Our team was able to translate innovative solutions into new concepts and then engineer fully-functional prototypes. We performed controlled tests within simulated environments to ensure the new design was performing accurately and consistently. We also utilized high speed video to demonstrate the delivery device in action, assuring client confidence to move forward with additional development. LAVA worked closely with Zift Medical to incorporate other features they requested. The collaboration resulted in a refined design that not only ensured doctor/patient safety, improved ergonomics, integrated user affordances & constraints, but also operated within Zift’s exacting medical delivery device specifications.

Kickstarting Medical Device Testing with Precision Production

Creating a ZiftLift delivery system that worked was just the first step. We then proceeded to manufacture the first-round devices for clinical testing. The delivery devices were produced at LAVA Design, utilizing our in-house capabilities: 3D printing, casting, machining, sourcing, QC, and assembly. This provided significant cost saving for Zift Medical.

In Q1 2017 Zift Medical began enrolling patients in their FIH study with  Minnesota surgeons, to gather early data supporting the ZiftLift procedure, utilizing an EFS IDE.

Services Rendered:

• Industrial Design

• Engineering

• User Experience

• User Interface

• Usability

• 3D Prototyping

• Production Innovation

• Mechanical Engineering

• Research

• Discovery

• Testing

• Human Factors

• Data Collection

• Documentation

• Manufacturing Consulting