USE Category Winner:

Cobalt Design for Cobalt—magAssist VAD Heart Pump

The jury was delighted to award Cobalt Design for Cobalt—magAssist VAD Heart Pump for the Use category. Jurors applauded the rigorous, intelligent and valuable interdisciplinary design process and exploration of the concept, which translates to a life-saving outcome. 

The project was well thought through and documented, incorporating creative use of technology and design to create a meaningful product. The first of its kind, the device provides blood flow to supplement or replace heart function via surgically inserted inflow and outflow cannulas.  

As a complex, multisystem Class III medical device, the project teams managed multidisciplinary inputs and experts including key suppliers to achieve a cohesive design outcome. Cobalt's design process is deliberately team-based, with specialist resources utilised as the development moves through the design process from understanding, insights, and concepts to prototyping and specification. Cobalt's breadth of in-house staff (& SMEs) allowed Cobalt to orchestrate and adapt the expertise required for the task.

The magAssist VAD Heart Pump is a brilliant product that results from a tight collaboration between engineering, design and medical science. The devices have a functional purpose making the concept of 'aesthetic' almost obsolete—provoking an exciting challenge for us to rethink the expanded role of design.

The key objective of this project was to engage cross-disciplinary design and create a unique product that merges core principles. Designers and their contributions have an impact on the world around us. The DIA values synergy and collaboration, and for the magAssist VAD Heart Pump, Cobalt presented a distinctive approach toward socially distributed cognition, inclusive group decision-making, and societal building activities.

Category: Use

Designers and Project Team:
Kynan Taylor (Project Leader)
Steve Martinuzzo FDIA (Principal)
Graeme Marshall (Design Lead)
Rob Cuzner (Mechanical Engineering Lead)
Justin Yuan (GUI design)
Josh Henry (GUI design, arm engineering)
Davis Tolley & Chris Coller (arm engineering)