Industrial Design News

Marc Koska's story featured in a recent blog post of Amsterdam-based industrial design consultancy, Bluelarix Designworks. Here's an excerpt:

Despite the fact many people would imagine something extravagant and expensive, when hearing the word “design”, real design thinking is not about this, we believe. Sometimes we hear, why designing things if everything is already made?

Well this time we would like to introduce to you the story of Marc Koska and his reasons to re-invent the syringe. Reuse of syringes, all too common in under-funded clinics, kills 1.3 million each year. Many of them kids. In 1984 Koska read a newspaper article predicting the transmission of HIV through the reuse of needles and syringes. Koska was fascinated by the problem and vowed to do something about it. He studied how drug addicts used syringes in the UK, went to Geneva to learn about Public Health Policy, visited several syringe factories, studied plastic injection moulding, and read everything available on the transmission of viruses like HIV.

Click here for the full article.
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Marc Koska is Joint Winner of the Dezeen Applause Award 2009

Marc Koska,OBE - (Joint) Design Person Most Deserving of Applause 2009

Designers Marc Koska and Studio Makkink & Bey have been awarded joint first place in Dezeen's competition to find the person most deserving of applause for their work in design in 2009, organised in collaboration with Laikingland, makers of the Applause Machine.

On November 30th, 2009, Dezeen - the world's most influential online architecture and design magazine - announced its competition in collaboration with Laikingland - makers of beautifully crafted kinetic objects - to find the person most deserving of applause for their work in design in 2009. The prize: a Laikingland Applause Machine.

Dezeen readers were asked to nominate, by leaving a comment on the Dezeen site, the most important, influential, controversial or simply the most lovely design person of the year. The designer with the most nominations together with the reader who submited the best reason for nominating the winning designer were both promised an Applause Machine as their prize.

Marc Koska OBE with his prize, a Laikingland Applause Machine

Submissions were judged by Marcus Fairs of Dezeen and Applause Machine designer, Martin Smith. The competition closed on December 16th, 2009 and the winners were as follows:

• Joint winners of the Design Person Most Deserving of Applause 2009 award: Marc Koska, OBE - designer of the K1 non-reusable auto-disable syringe which saves lives by preventing the transmission of disease; and design studio Studio Makkink & Bey.

• Dezeen reader winner was Michael Wigle for the nomination he made for Marc on November 30th, 2009 which is reproduced here:
  

Marc Koska – The non-reusable K1 auto-disable syringe

As a designer, I see invention and design as a solution to a problem. Sometimes we as designers create a problem, or a set of problems to find a solution to. Then there are the big, real life problems that plague many people from around the planet that us as designers try and find a single solution for. We perpetually complicate the world by not finding answers to overlooked problems in our own quest for fame.

Marc Koska may have designed the most important device no one has ever heard of. His syringe has the ability to save millions of lives and revolutionize medicine for developing AND developed nations. He deserves to be noticed and recognized not only because of his creation, but so his creation can be pushed to the forefront and noticed.

A hypodermic syringe that can only be used once, may save as many people lives as vaccines had once 100 years ago. Please award Marc Koska and help spread the word of his simple, yet powerful design. There are at least 1.3 million people in this world who can stand up and applaud this noble effort.

http://www.ted.com/talks/marc_koska_the_devastating_toll_of_syringe_reuse.html

"Many thanks to everyone who voted for me," said Marc in a tweet.
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Safepoint founder's TED talk shown on CNN site on World AIDS Day

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Entitled,"The price of saving a life is a few pennies", Marc Koska's TED talk was added to CNN's Opinion site on 1 December 2009, World AIDS Day:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/marc_koska_the_devastating_toll_of_syringe_reuse.html

• Reuse of syringes costs an estimated 1.3 million lives a year

• Syringes can spread blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis

• Low-cost syringes that can be used only once are produced
  

• India has mandated use of auto-disable syringes
  

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