At least 2.7 million Americans are living with AFib, according the American Heart Association (AHA), and that number likely is close to 45 million people worldwide. What advances are being made in the management of this condition?
Despite the success of drug-eluting stents, the cardiology community has long recognized the disadvantages of leaving a metal object in the coronary vasculature.
Medtech investment always has been different, a fact that was on display as I attended two recent regional events showcasing innovation. So how are investors - and the industry itself - meeting ever-evolving innovation, development, and investment challenges?
To eliminate unneeded costs and reduce production time frames for custom injected molded plastic parts, it is important for designers to understand how to optimize the part design from its conception and throughout its production.
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) sought a practical solution to a difficult problem that has been around since the advent of warfare: effectively treating wounds in a dirty, stressful environment.
The common approach to designing and developing an Instructions For Use (IFU) has been largely unchanged for years: once a product is designed and made ready for manufacturing, an IFU is then written and tested. When errors are found, changes are made, and the cycle repeats until there is an acceptable IFU version that most users will be able to comprehend. Clearly, this approach is often time consuming and costly.
A medical device company developed a bioabsorbable fixation design and concept that was commended by many surgeons in the industry. Unfortunately, after several years of working with a reputable molder, there was limited consistency and success in producing the part that was in their original drawings. MTD assisted the company by guiding them through material characterization and the development of a unique tooling construction concept to reduce secondary operations. MTD’s micromolded parts achieved minimal and consistent IV loss and were much more consistent shot to shot.
Rapid overmolding sidesteps assembly hassles, simplifies product design, and can improve the characteristics of many injection-molded parts.
FMI is committed to providing the highest quality of silicone components for medical devices. Using the highest process controls alongside the most rigorous quality tools, FMI is able to ensure patient safety and 100 percent inspection of every single component before it ships.
The Fischer Core Series of stainless steel connectors are comprised of 316L, PEEK, and EPDM materials for outstanding chemical, temperature, and radiation resistance. This line has been specifically designed for use as a long-term and reliable connector solution in severe environments.
The SR series of miniature optical encoders has been designed to fit into motion control devices with limited space, such as robotic arms for surgery, nanopositioning stages, microscopes, and other medical devices.
Medical device design and development is the cyclical process of creating a device for a specific task or set of tasks, and then continuously reevaluating its effectiveness and improving upon it until the device reaches obsolescence. Design and development begins with ideation and the creation of a concept that, if found to be both fiscally and clinically viable, is then designed, engineered, and prototyped. This preclinical period includes bench testing — accomplished through simulated use of the product — and animal testing, along with any necessary redesign work.
Throughout the process, the proposed medical device, and the process by which it will be manufactured, is examined for flaws that may negatively impact the device’s safety, market viability, regulatory acceptance, customer satisfaction, usability, or profitability. Any shortcomings are corrected, and the improvements applied to the final design. Due to the wireless connectivity capabilities of many modern medical devices, cybersecurity and interoperability also must be incorporated into the design. Clinical testing is conducted, using human subjects, to further expose flaws and confirm product strengths. Once both the product design and the manufacturing process have been validated and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), production and commercialization of a device may begin.
Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc. (NYSE and SIX: ZBH), a global leader in musculoskeletal healthcare, today introduced its X-ray-based Patient Specific Instrument, X-PSI™ Knee System, which is the world's first CE Marked surgical planning system that allows for patient specific implant positioning solely utilizing X-ray technology.
A National Institutes of Health-funded study led by a team at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University has shown that an influenza vaccine can produce robust immune responses and be administered safely with an experimental patch of dissolving microneedles.
Hill-Rom has unveiled an airway clearance system that is integrated into a mobile vest and allows patients more freedom of movement while receiving their respiratory therapies.
Successfully miniaturized multimodal optical technology combines three nonlinear imaging techniques into one probe, said German scientists.
A team of Australian scientists has just completed a phase one human clinical trial with an ingestible biosensor that can measure gas produced by the gut, and potentially transmit results to a connected smartphone.
Scientists in South Korea are mining the biomedical potential of both gold and graphene to design a more flexible brain-machine interface (BMI) that can transmit clearer signals while causing minimal damage to brain tissue, said researchers.
With Verily’s new “investigative watch,” the only information the clinical trial participant can view is the time and date, but researchers have access to a host of physiological data and biomarkers, including heart rate, activity data, and electrocardiograms (ECGs).
Toyota Motor Corporation will launch a rental service for the Welwalk WW-1000 robot from the fall of 2017.
Scientists from the Mayo Clinic have introduced new research in support of combining spinal cord stimulation (SCS) with physical therapy to restore movement for people paralyzed by injury.
Melbourne-based Bionic Vision Technologies (BVT) has raised US $18 million from Hong Kong-based investors China Huarong International Holdings and State Path Capital Limited to proceed with clinical studies testing the company's bionic eye for patients with retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative condition that is the most common cause of inherited blindness.
