We began the Pēpi Splint project in 2017 with the Waikato hospital NICU unit. Within this niche care sector, there have not been any significant developments in this field. There is very little data on skin injury recorded nor severity of skin loss. While its not pleasant and no one likes it, it's seen as par for the course and accepted part of a wider treatment. 
 

At the same time as Waikato hospital contacted us to see if we could propose a solution, perhaps in a case of serendipity, one of senior designers had his first child. All was not well and they ended up at Auckland's Starship Children’s Hospital, experiencing first-hand, the lifesaving but painful events associated with PIVC placements.

As a close knit team, we were hyper empathetic to their plight, so we jumped at the chance to make a difference.