A Company from New Zealand has won the Australian International Design Award of the Year. Intensive Care is based in New Plymouth and it was recognized for its outstanding design, attention to detail and innovation.

The M8 is specially designed to reduce patient handling and risk of injury. It allows a wide range of medical procedures which can be performed without transferring the patient from a bed.

Its other innovative features include its ability to convert the bed into a complete cardiac chair. Another unique feature is that it has a fully radiolucent deck enabling X-ray imaging capability and the patient does not need to be moved.

The awards are among the world's most renowned design awards. They recognize innovative product design apart from excellence and innovation. The judges at the show were highly impressed by the bed's aesthetics, materials and functionality. They pointed that it was very safe and easy, for this bed to be used by all the people.

Program Director of the awards, Stephanie Pemberton stressed that participating in New Zealand Government's Better by Design initiative in 2005 had helped improve the Company's performance significantly.

The other products from New Zealand that received acclaim in the show were Optiline Sheep Drencher (designed by Simcro and Novartis Animal Health) and Be task chair (designed by Formway Design).