The healthcare products taking out Good Design Awards

The Good Design Awards program is one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards in the world, promoting excellence in design and innovation. Awards are presented for products, services or projects that satisfy the evaluation criteria for good design. From a record 835 projects submitted to the Good Design Awards this year, 322 innovative projects qualified for the winners’ accolade.

We take a look at a small selection of the healthcare products that showcased at the Awards.

2020 Patron’s Australian Design Award

ellume.lab by Formzoo Design and Ellume Health

Point-of-care diagnostic tool — ellume.lab — has been awarded the 2020 Patron’s Australian Design Award.

ellume.lab allows healthcare workers to minimise disease spread by delivering more accurate diagnosis and earlier/effective treatment.

The Patron’s Australian Design Award recognises and celebrates the best Australian designed product, service or project in the annual Good Design Awards and is awarded to an entry that has the potential to shape the future economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects of our planet.

Combining highly sensitive ‘disease biomarker fluorescence’ technology into the convenience of a disposable ‘eStick’ and handheld diagnostic ‘reader’, ellume.lab allows healthcare workers to minimise disease spread by delivering more accurate diagnosis and earlier/effective treatment.

Designed by Formzoo Design and Ellume Health, the device’s influenza test delivers diagnoses in three minutes, a process which often takes four days.

The Awards jury commented that ellume.lab has a strong design approach that combines user-centred research with clinical innovation.

“This product has great potential to improve the current experience of point-of-care diagnostics, for clinicians and users. In terms of highly contagious influenza and pandemic conditions, this could radically improve life. It is a solution that accelerates the identification of infectious conditions while providing a good level of protection to health professionals. The portability of this product is a significant advantage.”

2020 MAAS Design Award

Rapid Shield by Space Tank Design

The Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) Design Award is chosen from the annual Good Design Awards and the criteria includes good design, innovation and the significance of a design to Australia’s culture. The Award is given to a project that has potential to make a significant improvement to the quality of health, wellbeing or the environment.

COVID-19 highlighted Australia’s PPE vulnerability and our need for domestic manufacturing security. The onslaught of GP and hospital attendances and news of frontline workers resorting to ponchos and welding shields for protection against viral infection led Space Tank to design an Australian-made and sustainable face shield solution: Rapid Shield.

Space Tank’s PPE solution, Rapid Shield, is made in Australia.

Commenting on Rapid Shield, the Good Design Awards Jury said, “The all-in-one design represents an innovative approach to providing protection, as does the origami folding structure. This single-piece construction should improve the environmental impact of the device. It’s a brilliant example of a product design manufactured using a single raw material and produced by a single process.

“The designers have responded swiftly to the need for PPE in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. They have incorporated some features in the design which are well resolved — thinking about the manufacture, cost, processing, packaging, ergonomics, fit and form of the product.”

Space Tank Design’s Holger Dielenberg said, “On behalf of Space Tank Design and our partners who helped us develop Rapid Shield, we are delighted to have received the MAAS Design Award.

“To date, Space Tank has supplied over 20,000 Rapid Shields to health, disability and retail organisations who cannot access government supply channels, and with hospitals and aged-care organisations now using Rapid Shield, we have scaled production to 12,000 units/day to meet increasing demand from around Australia.

“It is an honour to be recognised for our Australian-made contribution to health PPE during the global COVID-19 pandemic.”

Good Design Award Gold

Webster-pak 6 Dose for Parkinson’s disease (Parkinson’s NSW and Webstercare)

Webster-pak 6 Dose (Parkinson’s) received a prestigious Good Design Award Gold accolade in the Communication Design Packaging category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.

The blister pack arranges medications and the specific times they need to be taken throughout the day. For a clearer image, click here.

Managing Director Gerard Stevens AM said, “We are incredibly proud to win this award. Medication management is a major concern for someone living with Parkinson’s and their families, and ensuring adherence is key to improving the quality of life for patients.

“This prompted Webstercare, in partnership with Parkinson’s NSW, to develop a special medications folder specifically for Parkinson’s drugs.”

Once medication for Parkinson’s is prescribed, it is lifelong and requires taking medications on time, every time. Current treatment largely relies on prescription drugs administered in tablet or capsule form and can involve multiple daily doses and complex dosing regimens. This complexity plays a part in poor compliance among patients. Some studies suggest non-compliance is as high as 67%.

Webster-pak medication systems are packed by the local community pharmacy. The packaging system specifically supports people with Parkinson’s disease and other complex regimens to manage their medications correctly according to their unique treatment plan.

The pak folder sets out medication in a useful blister pack that arranges the medications and the specific times they need to be taken throughout the day. The Parkinson’s Webster-pak is specifically aimed at aged-care facilities but is equally appropriate for home use.

“The Parkinson’s Webster-pak is particularly useful in aged-care facilities where there are often numerous medication rounds to be made, which can make it very challenging to deliver medication on time every time.

“Feedback from the pilot was that the bright colour helped a lot as a visual prompt to give those medications first and at exactly the right time,” Stevens continued.

The jury praised the product commenting, “A simple and clever idea that is very well executed. What an opportunity to provide a simple solution that suits a multitude of needs, creating clarity for patients and reducing excess packaging in the process. This is adaptability at scale with a punchy colour and design.”