Eczema patient creates Rollerball Itch Relief, a device to relieve the itching without causing skin damage

This device, it´s made of stainless steel and has a cooling and calming effect on the angry skin allowing patients with eczema and atopic dermatitis to not scratch their skin. The mechanism of rolling differs from scratching, where skin is not dragged and instead is rolled over interrupting the itch pathways due to its texture.

Koh Bei Ning, 23, a graduate of Industrial Design at NUS, created and produce, for her final-year undergraduate thesis, the first prototype of the Rollerball Itch Relief, to help fellow sufferers relieve the itch gently. When Koh spoke with dermatologists, she found that the available devices used in itch-relief, no matter how gentle, when rubbed long or hard enough, any texture would cause the skin damage - “Many patients scratch until their skin is torn, and get stuck in a vicious itch-scratch cycle.”

Koh collaborated with a skin researcher and tested the device’s texture on real eczema patients to collect data and ensure the device would work.

Her main hope is to take the Itch Relief into small-scale production, where she hopes it can help people who struggle with scratching., and to work with more skincare professionals or researchers to develop the Rollerball Itch Relief further to best suit the needs of eczema patients.

The Rollerball Itch Relief is now being incubated at the Design Incubation Centre at NUS where Koh works as a designer on a one-year programme.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyhysjFn-BI