News Releases

Konica Minolta Wins Good Design Award 2021 for
VS1 Patient Monitoring System and Gas Monitoring Solution

October 20, 2021

Tokyo (October 20, 2021) – Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) is pleased to announce that the company has won the Good Design Award 2021 by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion (JDP) for its VS1 Patient Monitoring System and Gas Monitoring Solution.

Reasons for winning the award

VS1 Patient Monitoring System
Preventing nosocomial infections by allowing healthcare workers to remotely check patients’ conditions

Feature of the design
This system is designed to prevent nosocomial infections and reduce the workload of nurses by enabling centralized management of vital signs of inpatients.

Comments from Screening Committee of JDP
Using a wireless network, VS1 is easy to install and can be used with minimal access to the isolated contaminated zone, thus helping to protect healthcare workers and reduce the risk of nosocomial infections. The body of the system is cleverly designed, allowing users to easily move and clean the system and insert and remove the probes. The simple form and subdued colors make the system suitable for keeping in a patient’s room, and give users a sense of reliability and security, which is important for any monitoring equipment. The graphical user interface on the monitor and control screens is easy to understand and makes the system more user-friendly.

Gas Monitoring Solution
Ensuring the safety of plant operation by visualizing a gas leak

Feature of the design
This system enables users to visualize a gas leak and optimize maintenance work, thus helping to prevent plant fires.

Comments from Screening Committee of JDP
With the aging of plant equipment, the ability to visualize dangers invisible to the human eye will become increasingly important for plant maintenance. This is driving demand for cameras and image sensors that can see better than the human eye and can visualize various situations imperceptible to humans. The user interface superimposed on the visualized image also enables even less skilled and experienced workers to do maintenance work properly, helping to solve the worsening labor shortage.

Features of the award-winning products

VS1 Patient Monitoring System

VS1 makes it possible to send spot check vital signs of the patients, measured by a pulse oximeter*1, a thermometer and a blood-pressure monitor and continuously monitor the patients with the pulse oximeter, transmitting its data to the nurses’ station located outside the isolated zone via a Sub-GHz wireless network, thus enabling collective data management at the station. The continuous monitoring data are shown on both the bedside monitor and the staff station’s in real-time. If any unusual matter occurs, an alarm buzzer sounds.
Not only reducing the workload and manpower of healthcare workers, these unique features of VS1 lower the risks of their contacting infection sources and carrying the infection, thus helping to prevent nosocomial infections and enhancing medical safety amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Product Information
https://www.konicaminolta.com/global-en/newsroom/2020/1223-02-01.html

Gas Monitoring Solution

Incorporating advanced infrared-camera technology and cutting-edge image processing technology, this gas monitoring solution enables a gas leak and the direction of gas flow to be visualized and displayed on the image of the scene being viewed, while identifying the source of the leak and quantifying the gas concentration. Even the solution allows staffs at the head office to simultaneously view the images captured by gas monitoring cameras installed in various locations. The solution helps anyone easily and instantly identify the source and amount of gas leak, enabling automated constant monitoring for abnormalities, and prompt and appropriate maintenance work even without special skills.

Product Information
https://www.konicaminolta.com/us-en/gas/index.html

About Good Design Award

The Good Design Award is a comprehensive design commendation program implemented by the JDP with a view to highlighting and commending outstanding designs around us in the pursuit of prosperous lives and industrial and social development.
This program has a history spanning approximately 60 years since its implementation in 1957 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (present-day Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) under the name, Good Design Selection System, which was more widely known as the G Mark System.

*1: A pulse oximeter is used to measure arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) and pulse rate by shining a light through the fingertip or other part of the body, without taking a blood sample.

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