In 2008, the IF Product Design Award, an award granted in Hannover, Germany which has the purpose to promote the recognition of the national design abroad presented the 821 winners, thus allowing that the rewarded manufacturing companies use a stamp which is considered the most important in the European market.
From 225 Brazilian products enrolled, 98 became finalists, and 18 of them were among the winners of that award. Winners were selected among almost 3,000 enrolled companies from 35 different countries, and the analysis criteria were: quality of the design, finishing, material selection, level of innovation, environmental compatibility, functionality, ergonomics, practice, safety, market value and universal design aspects.
Presently, Brazil is among ten countries with more IF Product Design Award stamps conquered. From 2003 up today, of the 1,275 products enrolled, 653 competed in that European award, 578 were finalists, and 98 were winners.
One of the rewarded companies, Baumer, presented its surgical table Atena A-600 with a new esthetic approach that allied softness and sophistication without prejudicing its endurance. Through the observation of environments and the applications of the old version of the product as well as the users’ behavior, the company verified that the endurance brought by the steel was a quite valorized aspect. The solution was to simplify the internal steel-structure developing closing panels in plastic, keeping its endurance aspect with a look over-dimensioning some key-elements, such as the central column and wheels, allied to the development of mechanical triggering in machined stainless steel, mechanisms that help the user to adequately locate the patient. So, it appeared as a product with fluid forms and a series of functional innovations.
In 2009, another Brazilian company attained international recognition, participating in the The Bizz Awards organized by the World Confederation of Businesses: Diagnostek. The award was performed in the city of Cusco, Peru, and it is considered the most important award in the world granted to innovative companies in their sectors which are committed to the quality and social responsibility. The company has already received that award two other times, 2006 and 2008. The initial point of view of the founders of the award was to create a worldwide entrepreneur organization that would gather and give recognition to leader entrepreneurs in their segments who were cooperating to the growth of the economy in their country and would be a pattern to be followed. Presently, the Worldcob counts on more than 2,000 associated members all over the world.
The purpose of the reward to Diagnostek was the PARATEST® System that offers an unique easiness in routine parasitological feces examinations allowing maximum detailing. It is a preparing kit to simplify feces examinations, reducing the amount of consumables and the necessary steps to the procedure, thus facilitating the parasitological disease diagnosis. Further to this, the kit does not need water or electricity, thus avoiding recontamination of the environment.
Despite the exponential growth and the scientific progress, the availability and access to adequate and feasible health technologies in low and medium revenue countries are still insufficient. In January, 2010, WHO launched “The Call” for innovative technologies that address global health concerns looking for innovative technologies, with the purpose to identify and assess the existing or developing medical devices approaching global health concerns that may be accessible to those countries.
Once again, Diagnostek submitted PARATEST® to a committee of international experts on its site assessing every technology presented, and on June 2010, it published on its site a list with products and technologies which were deemed of interest and important to the health in global terms, and among them, the Diagnostek kit. Another Brazilian company rewarded was Fanem, a tradition manufacturer of neonatal equipments with its Bilitron® LED phototherapy unit that has the purpose to treat hyperbilirubinemia in newborns through phototherapy. The equipment increases the safety of the procedure using a radiation source that produces a blue light, minimizing the exposition to ultraviolet radiation. Another potential advantage is that the unit measures the effective light production in wave lengths besides of consuming less energy than the previous models.