A final-year Product Design and Technology student at ɫƵ has claimed a top prize at the 2025 HSE Spark Summit.
Isabelle Bentley Curran was one of three overall national winners who picked up the Design on The Frontline 2025 Winner’s award at the ceremony in Dublin’s Royal Convention Centre. The UL student won through the ‘ initiative.
HSE Spark Summit is Ireland’s leading healthcare innovation conference, which brings together international experts, policymakers, and frontline workers to explore the latest advancements in healthcare innovation.
Isabelle’s winning DOTFL design, ‘Elithya’, is a balloon-based IUD insertion device which she created in collaboration with UL Hospitals Group as part of her final year project.
‘Elithya,’ addresses an incredibly impactful problem, improving the IUD insertion experience for both the patient and the clinician. One notable aspect of this product is the companion app, which guides the user through every step of their IUD journey.
Associate Professor Dr Louise Kiernan celebrated the culmination of Isabelle’s incredible work and achievement after her significant win on behalf of the School of Architecture & Product Design.
“Isabelle’s design solution has innovated the delivery system for IUD insertion, making the experience much more comfortable for the millions of women who go through this procedure, while also making the insertion process easier for clinicians.
“We wish to congratulate Isabelle and wish her all the best on her next steps to bringing her product to fruition,” she added.
The DOTFL Student Scholarship is a national initiative by the that gives design students across Ireland an opportunity to collaborate with healthcare professionals to solve human-centred healthcare issues with their innovative design solutions.
In 2025, the HSE awarded 12 bursaries to students from six design schools across the country, with three bursaries going to students of UL’s Product Design and Technology and one to a student of the MSc in Design for Health and Wellbeing programme.
The DOTFL scholars receive a bursary to the value of €1,000 along with the opportunity to engage with frontline healthcare professionals throughout the development of their innovative design projects.
Isabelle was successful at the first stage to win a bursary and went on to be an overall national winner. Isabelle was awarded €3,000, mentorship, and a place on the program in Cork, which is an initiative designed to support the further development of innovative products with commercial potential.
Runners up, Leah Shanahan and Niamh Flanagan of UL’s Product Design and Technology and Caitlin Ryan Desmond of UL’s MSc in Design for Health and Wellbeing, each received the bursary for their project submissions in the first round of the competition.
Leah designed a pregnancy test designed with the needs of visually impaired women in mind, Niamh developed a play mobile for children who are going through cancer care treatment in hospital and Caitlin designed a securement system for endotracheal tubing for ICU patients.
All four students recently took part in the Design@UL 2025 final year showcase and had the opportunity to display their work at a national showcase in May.
Muthu Thangaramanujam, National Health and Social Care Professions Innovation Fellow who led the 2025 HSE Spark Design on the Frontline Scholarship, highlighted the importance of the programme.
“The HSE Spark Design on the Frontline Scholarship is focused on developing the next generation of healthcare design innovators. Isabelle Curran Bentley was one of three overall National winners, recognised for her redesign of the IUD immersion experience, an approach aimed at improving usability for both clinicians and patients.”
“Each UL project addressed a practical healthcare challenge through user-centred design. We’re proud to support these emerging changemakers through HSE Spark,” he added.