Innovator Steve Jobs: The Apple of the Medical Device Industry's Eye

Just a day after the FDA Commissioner released a set of steps that can be taken to drive biomedical innovation, one of the most well-known consumer device innovators of our time, Steve Jobs, has passed away. Jobs undeniably had a profound effect on the consumer electronics industry; however, the impact of his pioneering innovations reached far beyond gadgets for listening to music or tablet computers. They changed the way we, as a society, communicate, the manner in which we obtain or exchange information, and our perception of how products should look, feel, and perform. Under Jobs, Apple, without necessarily meaning to, has even left a lasting impression on the medical device industry. His influence is obvious in the growing use of iPads and tablets in the clinical environment. In addition, Apple products such as iPhones have been instrumental in fueling the growth of the exciting fields of mobile health and telehealth. And last but not least, Jobs' reign at Apple had an indelible impact on product design that has end-users pointing to Apple as the paragon of user-friendly, sleek design. While we reflect on how much of an impact the career of one man has had on society, here are some of the stories MPMN and Qmed have recently covered involving Apple technologies being used in innovative ways for the medical device industry or their impact on the market: