For as long as I’ve been working with our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Howard Levin, he has been absolutely brilliant when it comes to making our customer’s lives easier. A few years back, we had a customer come to us with an interesting query; she was scheduled to go in for a medical procedure where she would be unconscious and she wanted to be sure that all the medical professionals would be aware of the restrictions (no blood pressure or IVs) on her lymphedema affected arm. First thing that came to mind was using a lymphedema alert bracelet, but due to the constrictive nature of jewelry, wearing one on the lymphedema-affected arm is ill advised. It was then that Dr. Levin came up with the idea for a compression sleeve that would also alert medical caregivers as to the danger of certain procedures on that arm. Dr. Levin and I worked on a few iterations of the design, which never quite took off, but the Hospital design idea never left our minds.
Fast forward a few years, Dr. Levin’s son, our current president, Josh, was reading the message boards on www.breastcancer.org. There was a discussion amongst the members about going into the hospital for procedures and their concern about the medical staff using their at-risk or affected arm for needle sticks, blood pressure and IVs. Many had said they wanted to wear something on their arm that would be very clear for the staff. Josh knew this was something we’d be able to do, so he replied to the board and offered to design a garment that would not only provide the necessary compression but would also shout the “Not This Arm” message loud and clear. And just like that - the Hospital design was back on the drawing board.
Working together with the members on the thread at breastcancer.org, we wanted to create a sleeve that absolutely could not be missed and incited all that saw it to exercise caution, thus the bold yellow and black color-scheme. Next, we added the clearly written “Not This Arm,” and “WARNING Restrictive Extremity” text along with icons of the prohibitive procedures. Once the sleeve design was in place, we shared it with our medical advisors to get some feedback and further improve on the legibility and clarity of the design. Finally, the design was vetted with the breastcancer.org community and ready to be shared with all of our DIVAs.
When working on this project, we knew that the function of this design would be necessary for all of our customers, and also that this garment had a specific function and wouldn’t be worn on a regular basis, so keeping the price accessible was essential. We also wanted to take into consideration our medical advisor Dr. Andrea Cheville’s paper on the importance of wearing a gauntlet/glove in conjunction with a sleeve as part of compression therapy, for that reason we decided to offer the Hospital design exclusively as a sleeve and gauntlet set only. It’s always been our pleasure to support nonprofits that are making a difference in the lives of those with lymphedema and breast cancer, that’ why ten dollars from the sale of each Hospital design directly benefits the Lymphatic Education and Research Network. Since the launch of the Hospital design over a year ago, we have been able to provide our customers with the piece of mind of knowing that medical professionals will exercise caution when working with their lymphedema-affected arm and also give back to a wonderful organization!