After several days of rating thousands of products from all around the world, the expert jury honored the design of the 3D EinsteinVision® 3.0 and the 2D SmartVue® camera heads from Aesculap with the quality seal in the discipline “Product Design 2017”. On July 3rd, 2017, the awards ceremony took place in the course of the “Red Dot Gala” in Essen.

With both camera systems for endoscopic laparoscopy, Aesculap implemented a platform technology for the first time. That means that in combination with the 3D camera system EinsteinVision® 3.0  both the 3D as well as 2D SmartVue® camera heads can be utilized. The same design elements and language as well as uniform control elements for both camera head variations mean that users can expect a consistent user experience and, through that, simpler handling in day-to-day clinical work.

“The third generation of our 3D camera system EinsteinVision® fulfills a variety of customer requirements”, explains Jürgen Lippert, Senior Product Manager, responsible for Global Marketing Laparoscopy at Aesculap. The operating controls make an intuitive operation of the camera head possible in a darkened, sterile surgery environment.

There were other product features that were worthy of award for the jury: the permanently fog-free optics through integrated heating elements at the tip of the endoscope, the consistently high picture quality, thanks to an extraordinary sterile provision concept with which the optical camera system doesn’t need to be sterilized (the thermal preparation is actually the main cause of the constant loss in picture quality of optical components) as well as the visible reduction of surgical smoke in the abdomen, as the high-frequency (HF) current often produces a disruptive buildup of smoke. By using a special camera algorithm, this impairment is visibly reduced. “That makes the operator’s job easier and simultaneously shortens the duration of the surgery. This illustrates how both the user and the patient are the focus of our product development, as, with laparoscopic work, better visibility also means more safety for the patients,” according to the product manager.

With the help of individualized camera settings, the camera systems can be applied interdisciplinarily in both general and visceral surgery, gynecology, urology or cardiothoracic surgery.

About the Red Dot Design Award
The international competition for the “Red Dot Award: Product Design” is organized by the Design Center of North Rhine-Westphalia, with its office located in Essen, and is one of the largest design competitions in the world. For more than 60 years, a team of experts has been awarding the quality seal for good design and innovation to the excellent designs of the year. For 2017 as well, manufacturers and designers around the world were called upon to submit their products. The roughly 40-member jury, made up of independent designers, design professors and specialized journalists, tested, discussed and rated each individual product. Altogether, the competition recorded more than 5,500 submissions this year from 54 countries. For the next five weeks, the special exhibition “Design on stage” will show the award-winning products of the year within the scope of the world’s largest exhibition of contemporary design.   

More information can be found at www.red-dot.de.