A portable, retractable room divider, the KwickScreen (HEJ – October 2009), designed to afford hospital patients maximum privacy, dignity, and protection, has won the UK leg of the James Dyson Award, impressing judges with its “simplicity and commercial potential”, and will now compete against 18 other “international” entries for the top global prize.
“Run” by the James Dyson Foundation, the James Dyson Award was open to any student of product design, industrial design, or design engineering (or graduate within four years of graduation) studying, or who has studied in, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. All the shortlisted entries now progress to the international stage, and will be judged by Dyson engineers, and ultimately by Sir James Dyson himself. The global winner, to be announced on 8 November, will receive £10,000 (for the student or the team), and £10,000 for their university department. The KwickScreen was developed by Michael Korn (pictured), a former student at James Dyson’s alma mater, the Royal College of Art, who went on to commercialise it; it is now being used by 26 NHS Trusts. The Award judges said: “NHS Trusts have found the KwickScreen a cost-effective way of overcoming problems associated with privacy and dignity – including the recent focus on single-sex accommodation. The screens also provide a solution to side room isolation for infected patients, which is a huge problem across the NHS, as, according to Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, the service is currently 50,000 side rooms short.”
