The STARSystem has won over the 38-member jury and close to 5000 other entries at one of the most renowned and internationally acclaimed design competitions: Red Dot Design Award.

The award is an international product and communication prize created by Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, one of the oldest and most highly reputed design institutions in Europe.

The medically engineered product was developed with Auckland cardiologist Mark Webster, and is an example of multi-skilled collaborative design.

“It’s great for the team to have its work recognised in an internationally acclaimed design competition,” says Mike Oxborough, product designer at ADEPT Medical Ltd, the company behind the product. “But what is really pleasing is the reception this system has received from the international market place.

“It’s been a real success story for us with customers now in 30 countries around the world.”  

STARSystem is a medically engineered product that has been created to help doctors place a patient’s arm in the most optimum position in procedures to do with vascular and heart issues.

It was the STARSystem’s carbon fibre system that convinced the jury with their design.

The team was able to see the clinical benefits from the outset as it also provides a stable work surface and support for catheters, wires and other equipment, and significant additional x-ray scatter protection.

ADEPT Medical Ltd was established in 2003 as a medical manufacturing company in Auckland, as a secondary to award-winning design and manufacturing parent company Adept Limited.

Even though the medical company is known as a plastics manufacturing (injection moulding) company, Oxborough says the carbon fibre composite technology was a completely new venture for them.

“The STARSystem represents a successful foray into an area of manufacturing that was previously outside our expertise,” he says.

This year the jurors assessed 4,928 entries from 56 countries.

The “Honourable Mention” award is for products that displayed well-executed aspects of design, high quality and innovative solutions.

With only 122 entries given this award, the team at Adept medical are extremely proud of their success.