31 May 2016
An innovative nurse’s call button, created by a team of University of South Australia Industrial Design staff and graduates, in partnership with Hills Health Solutions, has continued its award-winning form, achieving a prestigious Good Design Award.
Managed by Good Design Australia, Australia’s annual Good Design Awards program recognises and rewards excellence in design, innovation and creativity at a national and international level.
The product’s success in this competition continues an award winning streak which began when the product won the Gold Design Award, the President’s Award and the Premier’s Award in the Design Institute Australia (DIA) Laminex 2015 Design Awards.
It’s a streak that is set to continue, as the product has also been named a Red Dot Design award winner with the design team due to pick up an award in the Medicine and Life Science category of what is regarded as the most respected design competition in the world - with more than 17,000 entries, across 31 categories and 57 countries.
The Nurse Call Pendant, developed by a team including UniSA’s Dr Peter Schumacher, Dr Sandy Walker and graduates Daniel Weiss and Robert White, was designed for easy use by people with arthritis and limited dexterity.
Dr Schumacher says the pendant, which consists of an air-bulb operated air switch, providing a soft and easy way to activate the device, showcases UniSA’s design skills.
“Winning these highly respected national and international awards, the Red Dot Design award, The Good Design Award and the DIA Awards demonstrates the quality of the Bachelor of Design (Product Design) and the Masters of Design (Industrial Design) programs, staff and graduates,” says Dr Schumacher.
“These achievements show we are operating at the highest standards of national and international design practice and it builds on the award winning momentum the design is already being recognised for.”
The product is now being manufactured by Hills and is available on the market.
“South Australia has a large ageing population, and we see this as an enormous opportunity for Adelaide to lead the world in innovation for ageing communities,” Dr Schumacher says.
“Projects like this one generate jobs and there is so much potential in aged and health care to find solutions and improvements that have really broad and important applications to improve the lives of older people. This is just one success – but there is so much more potential.”
“This device is sure to have applications in other areas outside of aged care where people with poor dexterity need to activate devices of any type” says Dr Schumacher.
The award-winning device will be displayed in the Red Dot Design Museums, the Online Presentation and in the Red Dot Design Yearbook.
Winners will be honoured at the Red Dot Gala to be held in Essen, Germany on 4 July.
Contact for interview: Peter Schumacher Tel: +61 8 830 20361 email: Peter.Schumacher@unisa.edu.au
Media contact: Will Venn mobile: +61 401 366 054 email: will.venn@unisa.edu.au
