Design
The U.S. Innovation Struggle: 
One Model to Follow
The U.S. leadership position in terms of healthcare innovation has been largely taken for granted. A convergence of recent events, however, has changed the landscape. The balance of trade is decreasing, and foreign governments are growing their own industries. Lengthy FDA...
Juggling Act: How to Design with Multiple Materials
  Above are silicone extrusion, silicone-molded, micromolded, and two-material molded parts. Just a few decades ago, choosing the material for a new medical product was a relatively simple process limited to a few commodity materials. Today, that’s no longer the...
Medical Devices Come Home
Some in-home medical devices and their gateways communicate directly with the patient to offer help and feedback. Other gateways are designed to be passive and effectively invisible. As the population ages and the number of people requiring medical treatment rapidly...
Students Drive Device Innovation
The grand prize went to a Johns Hopkins team for its rapid hypothermia induction device. The BMEidea recipients were awarded at the recent MD&M East expo and conference. The competition is designed to raise the profile of innovation and entrepreneurship in the field of...
Stroke Therapy Project Wins BCI Award
Winning team member Kai Keng Ang (left) stands alongside Christoph Guger, g.tec’s CEO. Although telepathy appears to be at least a few millennia down the road, an increasing number of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have exciting new medical applications. The 2010...
The Evolution of CRM Power Technology
Nokia recently announced that it is recalling 14 million phone chargers due to the possibility of the circuitry shocking the user. Imagine the challenges if the circuitry had to be removed from someone’s body before replacement. In many ways, implantable electronics can be...
MDEA 2010: Winning Products and Suppliers
Critical-Care and Emergency Medicine Products   AccuVein AV300 portable, noncontact vein illumination device, manufactured and submitted by AccuVein LLC (Cold Spring Harbor, NY). The AV300 helps to find veins not otherwise detectable, thereby helping to reduce multiple...
Jurors Turn an Experienced Eye Toward Design
  Gail D. Baura, PhD, is a professor at Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences in Claremont, CA. She teaches classes in the medical devices and diagnostics track and is one of the nation’s foremost experts on system theory applied to patient monitoring. She...
AAMI, FDA Focus on Merits of Simulation Testing
Simulation testing allows designers and clinicians to explore controlled situations without putting patients at risk, according to Jeff Cooper. Although usability testing isn’t a replacement for clinical testing, it is gaining interest from industry designers as well...
Survival of the Smartest
As medical device technology evolves and manufacturers create products that do more with less, the industry has seen an influx of devices with sophisticated data and software capabilities. These “smart” devices with enhanced features can range from diagnostic equipment...