In post-accident situations, it’s important to move victims as little as possible. A secondary injury could be worse than the first.

With this in mind, Danny Lin, a student at Art Center College of Design, in California, has a new take on the classic stretcher. His Lenify design breaks into three pieces, allowing first responders to slide head, body and leg sections under the patient in turn, minimizing how much they have to adjust.

“I looked at a lot of video, and I saw some information about bad events that occurred from the regular stretcher,” he says, “so I started to think about how I could improve transporting weight.”

To break down the stretcher, you release handles at the top, and then slide the smallest piece under the head, before closing two middle halves together. Finally, you can put the leg section, the biggest piece, in place. You make the board whole again by pushing back the handles.





“Scoop” stretchers do something similar, sliding two head-to-toe sections together. But Lin reckons his idea is superior. “I think my design is better, because it goes into more pieces and can reduce more movement,” he says.

Lenify is an entry to the James Dyson Awards, which will be announced in November.

Lin, who is Taiwanese, graduates this fall, and hopes to keep working on the project. He has yet to build a fully-working version, though he does have models for the handles, and a mini version that can carry sandbags, and other weights.