SafeSteps Platform

WHY?

This is a project that was born out of the necessity to teach caregivers, family members, physicians, and other people how to properly react to a seizure emergency period. Although handouts exist and courses exist, one problem is that neither of these things would be very likely to be unavailable at the time that they are needed, that is, at the time in a of an emergency. So a simple idea was born. Bring some kind of small, simple physical object right to the emergency itself.

1. NOTHING IN MOUTH.There is a myth that you can swallow your tongue and die during a seizure, and therefore people should put something into your mouth to save you. In fact, our lab published a study about this (read paper). This is a foolish myth without factual basis. Indeed, many people do put things into the mouth of people having seizures, and then the patient gets hurt (like breaking a tooth) or swallows something that they might choke on. Putting something in the mouth only ADDS danger. Never do it.

2. 5 MINUTES? CALL 911. Seizures that last longer than 5 minutes are likely to cause brain damage. Time is brain. Most seizure last less than 2 minutes, so if a patient is still convulsing after 5 minutes, they are having a life threatening emergency, and there is no time to do anything except call an ambulance, who likely have life-saving medicine onboard.

3. PROTECT THE HEAD. Patients that have seizures can injury their head. It is easy to move things away from them, cover sharp things with pillows, blankets, clothing or other soft objects.

4. LAY DOWN ON SIDE. Patients sometimes can vomit during or after a seizure. If this happens, they should vomit OUT of their body, rather than IN to their lungs, which can cause aspiration pneumonia.

WHO?

This project is being run by Daniel Goldenholz, MD, PhD, FAES. He is the Director of the Epilepsy + Data Science Lab at Harvard Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He is a board certified epileptologist and he absolutely hates epilepsy.

WITH WHAT TOOLS?

In order to manufacture use types of educational tools. a 3D printer that used FDM technology and has the capability of at least two colors is necessary. Such a 3D printer can now be purchased for less than US$500 and a variety of manufacturers offer options for this. There are more advanced printers available that are quite a bit more expensive, which can also manage this perhaps more elegantly. There is a very large worldwide network of hobbyists enthusiasts and professionals who use 3D printing and share 3D printed designs. One of the aims of its SafeSteps project was to make the designs available to everyone, so that it can be shared and disseminated rapidly around the world, as well as improved upon. By improving on this design. and again, sharing with the community, a virtuous cycle of enhancement, improvement, and dissemination can be initiated through this project and for the people who take care of people with epilepsy. There are many, many things that need to be done to improve the situation for people with this disease. 

HOW?

What kind of object? Well, something heat stable, something small, something portable, something ideally that could fit fit on a key chain, but it doesn't have to. Something very easy to read, something non-stigmatizing, for example, not using the words at the epilepsy or seizure, and something pretty simple that most people could understand without a whole lot of explanation. Initially, the idea was to make some sort of complex container for medications, which had explanations of how to handle a seizure on it. However, initial prototypes didn't work very well, didn't look very good. were difficult to manufacture, and initially did not have stability in hot environments. So over time, the design was iterated and gradually became closer to the form factor of a small key chain that was very easily readable, made out of PETG, which is heat stable, recyclable, and non-toxic. and could be printed using a variety of different 3D printers provided that two colors were available for the printer. There are many different methods for 3D printing. Several of them allow the option for multicolor printing. And this was chosen as the preferred method because of the ease of readability when two colors are used. Unfortunately, this design creates the limitation that not all 3D printers would be capable of making this initial design. The initial designs were made in the free tool TinkerCAD, but over time these migrated over to the more advanced CAD software Fusion360. For additional inspiration, the designs were evaluated and worked with in VR using GravitySketch. Once it became clear that multiple versions will be needed, an AI-assisted version was developed based on the earlier prototypes to be rendered with OpenSCAD. This tool allows for very flexible design, but also can rapidly change details and re-render the final product. This was useful because a number of versions will be needed.

SafeSteps T (tactile)

Download open source model files: https://www.printables.com/model/1330967-seizure-emergency-safesteps-platform-safesteps-t

The SafeSteps T keychain is printed in 2 colors, and has a slight tactile component with slightly raised letters. Depending on the type of printer and configuration used, the text can be raised on 3 or 4 sides. Because there is written text on this keychain, it needs to have the phone number for emergencies, which is different depending on the country. There are a large number of English speaking countries, but they did not all agree on an emergency phone number. So the SafeSteps T needed to have a version for each number. Thanks to the flexible AI-assisted OpenSCAD design, these are now all available for all English speaking countries.

When you download the set of SafeSteps T models, you will find different versions of the emergency number code as well as a table of which number corresponds with which countries. In this way, you can print out SafeSteps T keychains appropriate for a number of English speaking countries.

SafeSteps NFC (near field communication)

Here is the open source file: https://www.printables.com/model/1331463-seizure-emergency-safesteps-nfc

Another problem is that some patients, or caregivers, would prefer to have no visible text. For this group, a second and third option were designed. The SafeSteps NFC was developed as an alternative strategy, but looks like a small clean fob and has no text on it. And it could be used by placing any modern smartphone near the device, which activates a very simple website with the same simple text information, what is shown with the original SafeSteps keychain T for tactile.

SafeSteps QR (quick response code)

Here is the open source file: https://www.printables.com/model/1331502-seizure-emergency-safesteps-qr

A third option was developed based on a QR code with the same basic idea, a modern smartphone camera scans the 3D printed QR code, and that brings one to a simple website with simple instructions for how to manage seizure safety in the moment. It is notable that a QR code can be printed on regular paper, but the whole idea here was to make something more durable and more likely to be in the hands of the right person and the right time.

Safesteps sign

Here is the open source files: https://www.printables.com/model/1345444-seizure-emergency-safesteps-sign-multilingual

A fourth option was developed to make a simple sign that is about the size of a business card. This can be hung up, attached to a magnet, or put in a wallet. This sign was designed using the AI features that were employed for SafeSteps T, therefore all the languages are again supported as described above, and other emergency phone numbers are supported as well.

SafeSteps Pillbox

Open source files:

https://www.printables.com/model/1382701-seizure-emergency-safesteps-platform-safesteps-pil#how-was-this-made-

Made to allow for pills for each day of the week with a slide on cover. Available in multiple langauges and country codes with the four messages printed on the sides of the box.

UPDATE LOG:

• 6/29/25: Now QR codes or NFC taps will lead to the SafeSteps website, which will dynamically list the correct emergency phone number for the relevant country from which a device is in. For example, if in the USA, it will say 911, and in other countries will list the correct code there.

• 7/2/25 - We are adding experimental versions of 20 languages for the SafeSteps T keychain.

• 7/3/25 - We now have an easier website link: https://emergencysafesteps.com

• 7/6/25 - עברית added. Languages and openSCAD for SafeSteps T and Sign now merged. 

• 8/12/25 - ᜏᜒᜃᜅ᜔ ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔ added. New updated openSCAD for SafeSteps Pillbox added. Pillbox added!

CONTACT US

Want to help? Have questions? Want to design additional versions of SafeSteps? Want to translate SafeSteps into other languages? Let us know by emailing daniel.goldenholz@bidmc.harvard.edu.