Articles

Endotoxin Testing: FDA Update Prompts Time for Review

The recent publication by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of Guidance for Industry Pyrogen and Endotoxins Testing: Questions and Answers, dated June of 2012, the Department of...

Winning Competitive Advantages with a Device Design and Manufacturing Partner

Facing multiple challenges including cost pressure, global competition, and evolving market de mands, medical device companies may consider engaging with a design and...

Meeting the Chronic Disease Care Challenge with Secure Medical Devices

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that, in 2005, 133 million Americans suffered from at least one chronic disease. The magnitude of the effect of...

Magnitude Matters

Topping the agenda of medtech executives for 2013 is repeal of the medical device excise tax, which went into effect on January 1. Enacted as part of the healthcare reform legislation of 2010, the new law requires...

Understanding Capabilities and Constraints of Fine Laser Cutting for Medical Components

Fine thin metal laser cutting is an ideal technology for the specialized cutting requirements found in the manufacturing of medical tube tools and...

Navigation Aids Enhance Foot Control Usability

The ever-increasing functional capabilities of emerging medical de vices have precipitated new requirements for the multi-function foot controls used to operate the equipment. These foot controls...

Quality Management: Key To Medical Electronics Assembly and Manufacturing

No other industry in the US is under more pressure than medical electronics, and those pressures continue mounting each year for greater innovation and products that are...

Safety in Medical Electrical Equipment Starts with the Power Connection

Electrical equipment used in medical technology must not place patients or medical staff in danger. This, in turn, requires that designing safe equipment starts at the...

For FDA Approval, It All Boils Down to the Validation

We’ve all purchased new technologies, trinkets, and toys that were so counterintuitive that it was surprising how the product ever made it to market. While a poor gadget may present little...

An Overview of Additive Manufacturing Considerations

Speed equates to cost, so faster prototyping and production mean lower costs and faster time to market. Although this statement seems to be fairly easy, there are some considerations to make...

Design for Manufacturing: Concept to Reality

Design for Manufacturability (DFM) is a well-established practice, essential in realizing the transformation of new product concepts into mass-produced medical devices. And yet, all too often issues...

Advantages of Laser Micromachining for Balloons and Catheters

Drug-eluting balloon (DEB) and drug delivery catheter (DDC) based treatments are increasingly being offered and used for the treatment of coronary, peripheral, neurovascular, and ENT...

Creating a Healthier Future

The 10th annual “Create the Future” Design Contest, attracted more than 950 innovative product ideas from engineers and students in 65 countries. The Medical category itself received 92 outstanding entries from...

Grand Prize Winner

Sensordrone Tricorder Platform for Consumers and Mobile Device Developers Mark WagnerSensorcon, Inc., Buffalo, NY The Sensordrone, an invention that dramatically extends the sensing capabilities of smartphones and tablets,...

Medical Category Winner

Prosthetic Leg Connector Dave King Kelowna, BC, Canada The Medical winner was simply named Prosthetic Leg Connector. Its simplistic name belies the amount of thought and care that went into the creation of a device to...

Honorable Mentions

SwipeSense Yuri Malina and Mert Iseri Evanston, Illinois According to the Centers for Disease Control, the best way to prevent the two million annual cases of hospital-acquired infections is by increasing hand hygiene among...

Most Popular Entries

Virtual Walking Stick for the Visually Impaired Jonathan Tolstedt and Maxwell Tolstedt Fargo, ND Current navigational aids for the visually impaired include global positioning systems (GPS) and other devices using...

Wireless Power Solutions for Medical Technology

In today’s medical technology field, having a reliable and stable power source is a critical requirement for safe operation. Wireless power provides a unique advantage in that a device can now...

Multilayer Construction Offers Functionality and Versatility

The medical area has long required specialized materials be utilized to treat patients, and the processes of drug delivery and fluid handling are no exception. Hospitals across the...

High Power LED Chip Array Packaging

The last few years have seen the development of larger, higher power, higher luminescence light-emitting diode (LED) chips. Prior to this, LEDs were typically 0.020" x 0.020", came in various colors and were...

Advances Abound in Medical Robotics: From ‘Nursebot’ to Surgeon

Authors, filmmakers, and television programs have given us visions of robots serving humanity for most of the past 100 years. Some of the most iconic fictional ones include the...

Cardiovascular Applications of Biomedical Materials

Every day, a healthy human heart pumps 2,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels. Given this demanding workload, it’s not surprising that people can suffer heart...

Coloring Polymers for Today’s Medical Devices

Competition amongst device companies in the institutional market has energized the use of colors for brand recognition amongst physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers. With the rise in...

The Right Connections Help Medical Equipment Designers Satisfy Demanding Applications

The need to minimize healthcare costs is creating greater demand for medical electronics equipment that, among other things, improves and expands patient...

Fluid Handling in Medical Device Design

Among medical devices, there is a range of fluid management needs, each with its own unique needs and functions. The field of fluidics may broadly be divided into macro- and micro-applications. The former...

Sterilization with Nitrogen Dioxide Gas: A New Tool for Designers and Manufacturers

Noxilizer has developed a room temperature sterilization process for medical devices that is based on nitrogen dioxide (NO2) gas. Currently, industrial...

Hyperpolarized Metabolic Imaging Visualizes ‘Real-Time’ Disease Progress

Most major diseases are somehow linked to metabolic alterations. But being able to see the changes as they occur and to see if a treatment is working in ‘real...

Advances in Polycarbonate Color Compensation Technology to Withstand Sterilization by Irradiation Methods

Single- and multiple-use medical devices typically require sterilization prior to their use in order to provide for patient safety....

New Digital Interface Technology Will Transform Automated Slide Scanning Systems

For decades now, the medical industry has been automating to improve throughput, yield, and performance of medical devices. Slide scanning, for example, has been...