A Preview of Coming Attractions

Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry Magazine
MDDI Article Index

An MD&DI October 1997 Column

One of the occupational hazards of being a monthly magazine editor is developing a skewed sense of time. Even as your hands are working on the issue of the moment, your head is three months or more in the future, working on issues to come. Thus, although it's still September as I write these words, I'm preoccupied with January and the rest of 1998.

In this case, however, rather than distracting me from the task at hand, my preoccupation is giving me my subject matter. For some reason, editors traditionally share their long-term plans with advertisers but not readers. Here I break with tradition and offer the following preview of MD&DI in 1998. MD&DI's editorial mission­to cover the full range of issues affecting the medical device industry­will not change in 1998. Indeed, it will be reaffirmed.

As most readers will know, the perils of electromagnetic interference (EMI) has been a topic of intense discussion among industry, FDA, and the media in the past couple of years. As microelectronics continue to be incorporated into an ever-wider array of medical products, this issue will become still more important. Although MD&DI has frequently published articles on EMI in the past two years, we feel the time is right to inaugurate a monthly column on the topic. Longtime MD&DI authors and EMI experts Bill Kimmel and Daryl Gerke will kick off the column in January and will be followed by a host of other expert authors in subsequent issues.

Another subject that has received much attention in the last two years, both in the medical device industry and among the general public, has been the Internet and the World Wide Web. As the Web and its related technologies become increasingly important sources of information and modes of communication­and now, as well, vehicles for electronic commerce­they are becoming increasingly important in the medical device industry. To help keep our readers aware of the benefits of browsing the Web, we will introduce a monthly column featuring Web sites pertinent to the industry. The column will be jointly written by Richard Hunter and David Vine, authors of a guide to the Web for the device industry that will be published by Canon Communications early next year.

In addition to these new columns, MD&DI will offer an increased number of features on key design and manufacturing technologies for the industry. Scheduled topics include extrusion, flow control, bar coding, electronic data interchange, sensors, wireless electronics, software, filtration, and testing. Each month the magazine will also feature components, materials, and services in such categories as die-cutting, laser technologies, adhesives, and surface treatment.

We will continue to cover important industry issues, such as regulatory and legal affairs, quality assurance, and business and marketing, as well as key events such as the Medical Design & Manufacturing shows. The results of the sixth annual business outlook survey will be published in the March issue; the salary survey results will be in August.

And, finally, throughout the first half of the year we will be reporting on developments in the first annual Medical Design Excellence Awards, which I announced in this space last month. Detailed coverage is scheduled for the May issue, which will feature the finalists and their products, and for the July issue, which will offer an extended article on the winners.

Lest you conclude that we've planned out the coming year's editorial content to the last period and there's no room for you to participate, be assured that we are always on the lookout for suggestions for articles and authors to write them. Whether you're interested in the topics described above or in others, please let us know.

John Bethune

[email protected]

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