Kinetic Medical Device Gives PDR a Triple Award Victory

The pioneering research consultancy PDR (The National Centre for Product Design and Development Research) based at UWIC are celebrating a victorious year after bagging three of the world’s biggest international awards.

 

It’s latest award-winning design, ‘Shakerscope’ – an innovative multi-purpose medical device and light source that is powered by shaking, surpassed competition from some of the world’s leading players to bag a prestigious iF Award in the highly competitive ‘medical’ category.

 

The iF design competition, now in its 5^th year, is one of the most sought after design prizes in the world, attracting 1,900 entries, from 35 different countries every year. The iF seal is a guarantee for the highest design quality, critically judged and selected on the basis of a comprehensive catalogue of criteria by a jury composed of top international designers.  

 

The Shakerscope, designed and developed for two consultant anaesthetists in Swansea, is the first medical device to use kinetic energy to generate electricity and is set to transform the efficiency of medical handling in difficult danger environments. 

 

With interchangeable device heads also developed by PDR, the instrument can be used for essential eye, ear and throat examinations, offering significant advantages to users in cost, space and weight compared to conventional devices, which require a separate power and light source for each application.

 

Shakerscope was trialled with great success by the armed forces in Afghanistan in September-November 2007 on military patients and casualties, and it was deemed that its robustness, versatility, compactness, reliability, and non-dependency on batteries make it highly applicable to many worldwide medical situations. 2008 will see the implementation of Shakerscope across the globe in areas such as commercial aviation, medical care in developing countries and medical disasters in the armed forces.

 

PDR, a multi-disciplinary design and development centre based at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, received the news of its second iF Award shortly after it became the first Welsh design company to receive a world-renowned IDEA (International Design Excellence Award). This gives PDR a triple win for 2007/8, as well as illustrating the superb design and manufacturing talent in Wales.