Medical alert jewellery is worn by people who want to alert health professionals to hidden health issues should they fall ill and be unable to communicate. It can also contain other information such as next of kin or ‘living will’ information.

I am researching this subject for my undergraduate dissertation and have produced a short questionnaire for people with hidden health issues (allergies or diabetes for example) who use jewellery of this type, or people who should use it but, for whatever reason, don’t.

There are various levels of anonimity available and as a further confidentiality measure the dissertation will remain confidential after completion.

I also want to speak to health professionals, particularly A & E staff and ambulance staff about their experiences and attitudes toward this type of jewellery.

All contact will remain confidential – I can be contacted at d.kinnear@dundee.ac.uk for further information. A copy of the questionnaire, in MSWord format can be obtained from HERE

If you download it and complete it please mail it to me at the above address. I will confirm receipt.

EDIT 19.06.2010

I have now created an online version of the questionnaire it can be accessed HERE

EDIT 13 August 2010 Survey has ended.

Part of the project is to start thinking about inspiration, consider what type of jeweller or (I prefer and) what sort of 3D designer I want to be, for example fine art, narrative or conceptual.

This is what all the Rhino stuff has been about lately, I’ve been looking at inspiration and path. Inspiration has, for as long as I can remember, included using stuff that has a defined purpose, out of context, within jewellery applications, an example of that are the bracelets I’ve made from engineering ‘O’ seals. This type of thing also includes using found objects in jewellery, whether the objects are included in the work or the work is modelled from the object, an example being cast silver hearts using a small wooden one I found. I’ve also started to look at large civil engineering constructions as well, hence the Rhino Forth bridges and Eiffel towers, and finally I have to go back to DHTP and look at medical applications for jewellery.

With all this stuff in mind I then have to look at where I’m going and I have to say I’m thinking conceptual, which has surprised me a bit because I’ve never really been a fan of ‘conceptual’ maybe I’m misunderstanding the term but anyway I think my future, or at least a large part of it, lies on the conceptual path. I wonder if it’ll pay the bills?

At one of our design history seminars in 2nd year we had various discussions about jewellery applications in medicine/health. Jonathan Baldwin (DHTP Tutor) told us about a system to track Altzheimers patients. Basically the patient wears a device that gives off a radio signal and they can be tracked if they wander off or get lost. Jonathan points out some failings of that particular system on the Design Cultures blog.

Today, in the Courier, there is a story about a system being piloted by Fife Council, NHS Fife and Fife police where patients who suffer from dementia carry a matchbox sized gizmo that enables their position to be monitered using GPS technology. The Courier story isn’t in the online edition but there is an article available on the Fife Council website

This looks a bit better than the system pictured on the Design Cultures blog and it’s probably much better in practice.
I think I’m going to investigate further because I am still looking at the whole subject as a possible dissertation candidate.

That seems to be 2nd year done and dusted bar the official results around the end of May. I picked up a brief for our summer project today, it’s mainly a research and development project taking in which direction we want to go in as a jeweller and where we might see our work being sold.

I’m not sure at all about the direction I’d like to go in, I thought my inspiration was going to be from industry and found objects but still have a bit of a lasting link to the organic approach I had to my final HND project at College, I won’t discount anything at the moment, I’ve also still got medical uses for jewellery at the back of my mind thanks to DHTP.

Whatever I do I think it’ll involve small scale casting because it’s my favourite process although I’m thinking about moving away from cuttlefish because I’m unsure about the sustainability of the product, sustainable and ethical sourcing of materials is something else I’m becoming more aware of and interested in. I may try Delft clay casting, I’ve done some looking around and it seems to give better results than cuttlefish. Now I need to find a job for the summer holidays so I can pay the rent.

Roll on 3rd year.