Process

Sam Daitzman

Brief

Sam Daitzman

Reassuring Touch is a stress/pain device that provides the reassuring feelings of direct human touch for patients in unpleasant clinical situations. It is especially targeted at patients undergoing unpleasant operations like the spinal tap who may have infectious diseases. 
Hospital patients who have or may have infectious diseases are isolated to prevent transmission. Tests may be unpleasant, uncomfortable, exposing, or even extremely painful. Usually, unpleasant procedures are a time for loved ones to offer support, making the experience more tolerable, but for patients with infectious diseases direct human contact may be dangerous. Physical human touch is an effective way to calm patients and increase comfort. Research even shows that some types of doctors have more effective outcomes when they come into contact with their patients. 


Reassuring Touch is a small device that patients can keep with them to maximize comfort and make the hospital setting more tolerable. Reassuring Touch uses clinically researched acupressure points, deep pressure, soft materials and warmth to replicate the positive sensations of human touch, without trying to replicate a human hand. Two selected acupressure points reduce acute or chronic pain, discomfort and nausea, and calm the patient's mood. Deep pressure aligns the nervous system and reduces spontaneous firings, cutting back on the unpleasant sensory overload of the hospital setting. Direct, soft, warm contact replicates the calming sensations of physical touch that are most effective at improving mood and longer-term outcomes. During extreme pain, the acupressure points reduce the intensity of the pain while Reassuring Touch provides an object of focus to grip, rather than the uncomfortable, chilling edges of a hospital bed or wheelchair.