Articles By Jim Pomager

31. The Toxic Killers Of Innovation — And 3 Simple Rules For Avoiding Them 4/1/2014

    Meet Pete Rosencrans. Pete's an R&D design engineer at a medical device maker, and he’s been tasked with overseeing the research, ideation, and design for a new medical device. He’s faced with gathering input from numerous stakeholders and incorporating it into a final design that pleases everyone. Oh, and his boss wants the device to look great and be fully functional within a matter of months. Sound familiar?

32. 3D Printing In Medicine: 4 Questions That Need To Be Answered 3/14/2014

    Almost everyone would agree that 3D printing has a bright future in the medical device industry. So what’s holding it back? This article poses four questions the industry must answer before 3D printing can reach its full potential in medicine.

33. 6 Technology Trends You Can't Afford To Ignore (In Your Medical Device Design) 3/6/2014

    When it comes to purchasing medical technology, today’s healthcare provider is looking for wireless-capable devices that will help them fill electronic health records (EHRs), support agile workflows, and meet outcome- and value-driven healthcare mandates. If you don’t shift your design thinking to meet these needs, prepare to start losing business. You are destined to either lose market share to more responsive competitors or (worse)  get “disrupted out of existence” by new contenders who lie in wait outside the traditional medical device industry borders — software vendors, systems integrators, and even consumer technology companies.

34. What Can Micro-Windmills Teach Us About The Future Of Medical Device Design? 1/28/2014

    At some point in the not-so-distant future, you’ll be able to recharge your smartphone by waving it about in the air for a few moments or (less conspicuously) by simply holding it out in a stiff breeze.What does this have to do with medical device design, you ask? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

35. Year In Review: The Top Medtech Storylines Of 2013 12/17/2013

    As we close the books on 2013, it’s time to reflect on the year that was in the medical device industry — partly just to reminisce, but also to see if there are any lessons to learn as we prepare to enter 2014. I took some time to review the most popular content from Med Device Online over the last year, as well as my notes and recollections from industry events, conversations, etc., and boiled it down to 8 key storyline/trends.

36. Sustainable Innovation: A Roadmap For Medical Device Manufacturers 12/3/2013

    Does the medical device industry have an innovation problem? To the uninitiated, the notion probably seems ludicrous — after all, we’re talking about a sector designing astonishing technologies like bionic eyes, artificial pancreases, Tricorder-inspired diagnostic tools, and mind-controlled prosthetics. However, as anyone involved in product development knows, there’s a significant difference between invention and innovation.

37. Powering The Internet Of Everything — Without Batteries Or Wires 11/19/2013

    Apparently the term Internet of Things (IoT) wasn’t comprehensive enough; now it’s the Internet of Everything (IoE). Whatever you choose to call it, the movement to connect just about everything imaginable to the Internet is well underway — and is expected to proliferate wildly in the coming years. According to Cisco, there will be approximately 50 billion connected objects by 2020, but how will we power them all?

38. RFID-Enabled Breast Implants And The Future Of Medical Device Tracking 11/8/2013

    A device hailed as the “world’s first externally identifiable breast implant” has received CE Mark approval, enabling physicians in Europe (and other parts of the world) to immediately ascertain manufacturer name, serial number, lot number, batch number, and other implant-specific data in vivo — by merely scanning the area outside the body with a handheld reader. What can this development tell us about RFID's role in facilitating UDI compliance, preventing counterfeiting, minimizing product recall impact, and more?

39. Medical Device Tax: Will It (N)Ever Be Repealed? 10/22/2013

    Despite finding its way into countless proposed funding bills during the 16-day-long government shutdown, repeal of the medical device tax ultimately failed to make the final cut. The federal government is back in business, the budget and debt-ceiling deadlines (and any leverage they provide) have been postponed, and the much-despised tax is still alive and kicking. At this point, I'm beginning to wonder the darned thing will ever die...

40. 3 Ways The Government Shutdown Is Hurting Medtech Development 10/9/2013

    The U.S. government shutdown has entered its second week, and Democrats and Republicans appear no closer to breaking their stalemate today than they were a week ago. As the two sides continue to trade barbs and deflect blame, half a million federal workers remain furloughed, government facilities remain shuttered, and important services remain suspended. Meanwhile, the gigantic political mess is beginning to cause some very real pain in the medical device industry.