PDD

eMagin has been named a CES 2017 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Digital Imaging product category for PDD-designed BlazeSpark. The innovative product offers the most advanced NIR night vision technology for consumers.

The consumer goods sector (FMCG, apparel, automotive, electronics) has always had greater freedom to explore design research in comparison to the Pharma industry, which is significantly more restricted. One of the problems with a stricter and more constrained set of rules is that it can curb innovation by creating limitations in the approach Pharma companies take during the development process and justification for when Patient Centred Design comes into debate. Often regulatory walls can slow the development of a new products and services and directly affect the time taken to introduce a new product to market.

IFA, held in Berlin, is one of the most important global consumer electronics and appliance events, presenting the latest products and innovations in the heart of Europe’s most important regional markets.

In my recent blog post on patient-centricity, I highlighted that the pharma industry has over the past years embarked on a journey towards more patient-centricity and that this trend actually has broad support across key players. At the same time, even with the best of intentions, it will take time for this new ethos to be truly embedded in the business practices of all pharma companies.

Last Thursday I got the opportunity to learn about the latest and greatest in VR and its applications in healthcare, courtesy of Health Tech Women. Over the course of 2 hours, the Virtual Reality Breakfast event in London showed how VR really is no longer just about video gaming and is being used to transform healthcare across a range of therapy areas.

In this first post of a three-part series, we look at the state of patient-centricity in the pharma industry today. In recent times, the pharma industry has increasingly adopted the mantra of“patient-centricity” which aims to put the patient at the heart of the company’s operation. The reality, however, still looks very different. Many are quick […]

The Hozelock Cloud Controller smart garden watering system has picked up its third major award since its recent launch, receiving the Garden Product of the Year Award 2016 from Chelsea Flower Show organisers The Royal Horticultural Society.

So the waiting list for London’s first naked restaurant has gone through the roof. The Bunyadi opens in June 2016 for three months and claims to offer diners an experience “free and unadulterated from the trappings of modern life” including phones, electric lights and even clothing. According to a press release, the naked themed menu includes vegan and omnivore dishes made with all-natural ingredients an d cooking methods, served on handmade clay plates, with edible cutlery.

It’s been a great start to 2016. The first quarter is not yet over and already PDD has 3 new prestigious design awards to its name. PDD’s work with the health & personal care brand Swisslux and the Zyliss kitchenware brand has been awarded with Red Dot design awards. This was followed by a German Design Award for the Testo 870 Thermal Imager.

We’re proud to announce that this month, the PDD designed T870 Thermo Imaging Camera, won the 2016 German Design Award.

All too often our health care is taken for granted, and we assume it will always be available to serve our community’s needs. The question is “How healthy are our healthcare facilities to handle the diversity of services and to produce healthy outcomes for an expansive and unprecedented market of six (6) living generations – all distinctively different with a diverse set of needs and priorities?”

For the first time in history, more people live in cities than outside them. Rapid urbanisation, resource scarcity and key climatic changes are adding to the pressure on policy makers and those tasked with designing, planning and constructing urban environments. At the same time, a growing number of consumers are coming to demand and expect to live and work in spaces that are not just good for their health and happiness, but are also energy efficient and respectful of the environment.

As is customary at this time of year, many of us have given some thought as to what we’d like for Christmas. Leo, my three-year-old nephew, has his wish list sorted. First up, he wants a Jessie the Yodelling Cowgirl figure – she of Toy Story film fame – who was, according to the Wall Street Journal, one of the hottest toys of the season back at Christmas 1999.

Fog. We’ve all been through it. Even by UK standards, the hazy cloud that recently hung over Britain is a bit unusual and, evidently, more than a bit disruptive. The visibility problems arising from fog make road and air travel more dangerous. However, even unusually heavy fog does not pose a danger to our health. It is only when fog combines with air pollutants to form smog that it can cause both short-term and long-term adverse effects on health. Short-term effects include upper respiratory infections such as pneumonia and bronchitis; long-term effects include cancer, lung and heart diseases.

Chris Vincent and I recently attended an AAMI training course held in Dublin on Human Factors for Medical devices. EU manufacturers and consultancies all attended with the hope of having some questions answered by the FDA.

How do you measure usability? How do you really measure the efficiency of interface characteristics and user satisfaction in a way that can feed opportunities to develop and innovate? As a usability consultant, it is not that uncommon to be asked to evaluate usability. Some would even go so far as to say it comes with the territory.

Earlier this week, I attended an event at Imperial College on Innovation in Medtech. The event was well attended by academics and a diverse group of industry representatives from pharma and medical device companies, start-ups, consultancies and investors.

Continued global interest in East Asian skincare and beauty regimes has boosted the development of new products, and leading the way is South Korean cosmetics company, AmorePacific (named by Forbes business magazine as the world’s 28th most innovative company). The company’s Air Cushion technology has helped AmorePacific become South Korea’s top facial makeup brand. Since its launch in 2008, more than 50 million Air Cushion compacts have been sold, and in July this year AmorePacific signed a deal with Parfums Christian Dior to share the technology.

My favourite favourite things at this year’s London Design Festival (LDF) were the vivid and often in-your-face installations and products inspired by Memphis – the design movement founded in Milan, Italy in the early 1980s. Happily for me, designs channelling Memphis’s bold geometric forms, bright colours and hyperkinetic patterns were present at several of LDF’s venues.

As a follow on from my previous blog, with more technology being used to treat patients, user interface (UI) design is key to making devices safe and effective. Patients aren’t the only ones who need good UIs however, Health Care Professionals (HCPs) are more reliant than ever on technology to do their job and this is only set to rise. They – more than most – need informative, error proof UIs especially considering errors kill 12,000 patients a year in the UK and no doubt cause complications for many more. Here are a few design recommendations tailored to designing devices with the needs of health care professionals in mind.