Aussie-invented NeedleCalmTM wins International Good Design Award

Australia’s world-leading medical invention helping reduce pain and fear around needle procedures, including the Covid19 vaccine, NeedleCalmTM, was announced today as a winner of Australia’s peak international design awards during the 2021 Good Design Awards Week.
NeedleCalmTM’s ‘Needle Desensitising Device’ received a prestigious Good Design Award Winner Accolade in the Product Design category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.
The Good Design Awards are the highest honour for design and innovation in the country and reward projects across 12 design disciplines and 30 subcategories.
The Good Design Awards Jury commented: “Given about 1 in 10 people are afraid of needles, this is a positive approach to overcoming a common problem. The discreet aesthetics of the device and its similarity to a sticky plaster may assist in uptake and the technique of activating alternate pain receptor pathways is clever too.”
Melbourne-headquartered NeedleCalmTM earlier this year launched their breakthrough Australian medical device assisting with the reduction of needle-associated pain with injection, immunisation, venepuncture and catheterisation procedures often associated with vaccinations, blood donations and tests, and cancer treatment.
This includes helping treat Trypanophobia – the fear of needles – as defined by the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders[i] in the Blood Injury and Injections (BII) category.
Lauren Barber, CEO and Founder of NeedleCalmTM, said receiving such a prestigious award showed Australian medical technology could cut it with the rest of the world in terms of innovation, ingenuity, and quality.
“It’s exciting to have the opportunity to help Australia close the gate on Covid19, particularly with the prospect of helping vaccinating children in safer, faster and less stressful way for kids, parents and medical practioners alike,” Ms Barber said.
“However, Covid19 is just one minor part of the potential to improve healthcare take up and efficiency long-term, with NeedleCalmTM able to be used in an estimated 60% – or 76 million – needle procedures in Australia each year.
“Awards like Good Design Australia are essential because they help increase medical and public confidence in not only our product, but also the quality of the growing revolution of Australian-made and invented medical devices.”
Dr. Brandon Gien, CEO of Good Design Australia said: “Receiving an Australian Good Design Award is testament to embedding design excellence at the heart of a product, service, place or experience. Although 2021 continues to be another challenging year, it is incredibly inspiring to see designers and businesses working together to find innovative, customer-centric design solutions to local and global challenges and to see them recognised and rewarded for their efforts through these prestigious Awards.”
“The importance of embracing good design principles is now more important than ever as many businesses around the world have had to completely re-think their business strategies to remain competitive. The standard of design excellence represented in this year’s Awards is the best I’ve ever seen in my 25 years of running these Awards, an encouraging sign that the design sector is flourishing,” Dr. Gien went on to say.
NeedleCalmTM is a Class 1 medical device approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) and was developed in part with support from the NSW Government’s Minimum Viable Product Grant program and Federal Government’s Industry Growth Centres Initiative (MTPConnect)[ii].
NeedleCalmTM is Australian-owned and manufactured and can be used in over 60 per cent of Australia’s approximately 128 million needle procedures carried out annually. It can be used at various injection sites across the body, including, but not limited to, arms, abdomens, buttocks and thighs.
For interviews with NeedleCalmTM Founder Lauren Barber or other enquiries, please contact: Troy Bilsborough (Provocate): 0427 063 150, +61 7 3058 0033 or troy.bilsborough@provocate.com.au