MeMed Key™ Wins Red Dot Award for High Design Quality

MILAN– frog, a leading global design and strategy consultancy, part of Capgemini Invent, and MeMed, a pioneer in the field of host immune response technology are proud to announce that MeMed Key™ has received the Red Dot Award for Product Design 2021. MeMed Key™ is a cutting-edge technology platform that allows highly sensitive and rapid measurements of multiple proteins at the point of need, empowering physicians to better diagnose and manage their patients in multiple medical conditions with precision and actionability, that was so far limited to the central labs.

frog designed the device architecture, industrial design, user interface and branding to bring MeMed’s first test that differentiates bacterial from viral infections and assisting physicians to decide whether their patients require antibiotics. The device was uniquely designed to reduce the time of analysis from two hours to 15 minutes using a simple and user-friendly workflow. According to CDC data, one in three antibiotics prescriptions in the United States are unnecessary, with the majority prescribed to patients affected by viral infections which do not respond to antibiotics. Such overuse of antibiotics is the major driver of antimicrobial resistance, one of the most daunting threats on modern medicine.

“We are thrilled that MeMed Key™ has been recognised by Red Dot for its superior design. The team worked relentlessly to turn the engineering complexity which provides superb accuracy and control that is similar to large central lab platforms, into an easy to use, miniaturized, point-of-need platform,” said Kfir Oved, Co-Founder, CTO & Chairman of MeMed. “MeMed is a global leader in the emerging field of advanced host response technologies and the MeMed Key™ is the trailblazer in providing solutions that have the potential to profoundly improve patient management.”

“Here at frog, our mission is to advance the human experience through innovative design, so when MeMed asked us to create a device to address the mounting problem of overprescription of antibiotics, we couldn’t wait to get started,” said James Luther, Design Director at frog. “It’s incredibly rewarding to design a product that is helping make the lives of healthcare practitioners and patients easier and more accurate, especially during a time when patients may feel vulnerable and uncertain.”

Red Dot CEO Professor Dr. Peter Zec on the laureates

“The winners of the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2021 were particularly impressive this year. The design of their products is excellent, in terms of both the aesthetic and the functionality. It’s not easy to prevail in such a strong field of competitors and to win over our jury. Consequently, I want to congratulate the laureates very sincerely on their success,” said Professor Dr. Peter Zec, founder and CEO of Red Dot.

Evaluation platform for good design

The Red Dot Award: Product Design dates back as far as 1955 and recognises the best products for a given year. The roughly 50 jurors were once again true to the motto “In search of good design and innovation” in the 2021 competition. The international panel of experts comprises specialists from a wide variety of sectors. They scrutinised the products entered in the competition in a process that spanned several days and were guided by assessment criteria such as the product’s formal quality, ergonomics and longevity.

MeMed Key™ in exhibitions, online and in the yearbook

MeMed Key™ can be seen in the online exhibition on the Red Dot website beginning on June 21. That date also marks the beginning of the Red Dot Design Week, during which this year’s award winners will be celebrated online.

MeMed Key™ will also be included in the exhibition “Design on Stage” in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen, where all of the award-winning products will be showcased. Visitors to the museum can experience the quality of the designs in a space that features contemporary design solutions and historical industrial architecture. The Red Dot Design Yearbook 2021/2022 comes out in August. The publication provides a comprehensive overview of the state of the art and trends in product design.