As originally asked by Jeff Schreiber

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas for a senior project in developing or improving a current medical device. The project would have to be done in two semesters, so time is an a big factor. My group and I have been brainstorming some ideas, but I thought it would be nice to hear from those of you who work in the industry. Any input would be helpful. Thank you!

Azadeh Saeedi
MASc, Mechanical Development Engineer
I worked on a medical device project for my Master. I think it is better to reach out to a person from medical background, asked himher about the current need, and try to come up with solution. It is not only helpful for your initial idea, but can be a great help throughout the process. If it’s a medical device you always need some advice from a medical person till the end of the project. And, they some times offer you grants for the collaboration.

Julie Omohundro
Principal Consultant at Class Three, LLC
Beth Ann, Aaron is the very first person to comment on this discussion, up at the top of the thread. Perhaps you aren’t aware that not all comments are shown on a long thread? You have to click on See Previous Comments to read them all.

Beth Ann Fiedler, PhD
Editor at Elsevier, Inc
Who is Aaron?

Julie Omohundro
Principal Consultant at Class Three, LLC
I agree with Aaron. Don’t ask us, ask those who use medical devices.

Kiran Kumar Pattnaik
Engineering , R& D Project Manager
I am currently working on medical devices products . Let me know if you need anything related to cardio and endovasculars products.

David Copeland
Director of Human Centered Industrial Design at Ximedica
Hi Jeff;

There are so many possibilitie;

* is it US-based or OUS-based? For world market? Developed markets or developing (and possibly underserved/at-risk) markets? Think of ideas that perhaps are common place in the US and available to us, that would fundamentally alter the lives of other countries IF they could afford them at a lower cost

* Is there an underserved population in need? Geriatrics or pediatrics? Typically, those smaller populations are under-served with solutions that aren’t quite tailored to them – perhaps they need things to be gentler, smaller, more innocuous or designed better to fit their lives or needs

* Look at emerging technologies (the SMP mentioned above for instance) and see how they could be used to deliver increased care or benefit in a new way. What right now seems a bit ‘archaic’ or ‘barbaric’ right now that either some new material, process, etc. would radically reshape and make less scary and traumatic and allow a higher quality of patient care, recovery and quality of life?

-David

Jerrold Shapiro
President and CEO, Fem-Medical LLC
David, DEKA developed a powered wheelchair that climbed stairs many years ago. It formed the basis of the Segway People Mover they introduced in the early 2000s. See http://www.segway.com/

Jerrold Shapiro
President and CEO, Fem-Medical LLC
Anyone interested in 3D printing, and how to print a copy of your own kidney, might want to attend TONIGHT’s presentation in Worcester, MA: http://www.theventureforum.org/event-1976744

Chris Elliott
Chief Regulatory Officer at Leman Micro Devices SA
Anything to do with exploiting 3D printing would be interesting for students.

David Selover
Assistive Technology Specialist Environmental Modifications Project Manager
I know that working on a power wheel chair concept that actually met real world demands, and not cost tens of thousands of dollars would be great! In addition, adding something simple like regenerative charging I think would be helpful in the short run and could be done in two semesters.

Lawrence Alpert
Extrusion Consultant for the Medical Device Industry
Shape Memory Polymers (SMP) certainly has been one of those polymers that have incredible properties, yet have been elusive mostly because processing technology hasn’t caught up to it. It is quite difficult to control in the same manner as most other “normally” used polymers in the industry.

I’ve been prototyping with SMP on and off for over 20 years, and even though I have had some successes, no prototypes have made it to market for various reasons. Certainly with a concentrated effort and enough capital, someone will be able to harness this strangely wonderful polymer family!

Beth Ann Fiedler, PhD
Editor at Elsevier, Inc
Or if the IVF needle suggested by Danica Medeiros is of interest, I would also consider a new needle type for fasting patients. Probing for a vein when patients are dehydrated is a major comfort problem.

Beth Ann Fiedler, PhD
Editor at Elsevier, Inc
Talk to a pediatric cardiac specialist who also works with adults. I am certain he or she can tell you a number of pieces of adult equipment that could be readily modified for pediatric use.

Michael Kitchen
Founder at StringAdvantage
I think you are looking for specific projects – will speak about what I know: Shape memory materials.

While possessing incredible properties shape memory materials have remained elusively difficult to control and apply to commercial applications. They offer an opportunity to transition a device in situ having mechanical properties equivalent or better than current open procedure type implants while gaining access to the anatomic site of placement with unprecedented small surgical pathways of access. Potentially so small in fact that the term percutaneous may be more appropriate than “minimally invasive”.

We at Restorative Physiology Group have been working specially in the Spine Fusion and Stabilization fields. Placing full sized and fully mechanically capable inter-body and inter-spinus implants with less than 6 mm access catheters.

We see potential for development of many different devices across a wide spectrum of clinical fields utilizing both shape memory metal and further down the line thermally transitioned shape memory polymers. Materials that can selectively transition between physical states i.e. from a straight linear element to a formed implant of infinitely variable geometry offer tremendous potential for innovation. Furthermore, this technology will lend itself to precision robotic placement.

Jerrold Shapiro
President and CEO, Fem-Medical LLC
Jeff, there is a wealth of ideas here, and some have already been implemented into products. For example a company was raising money on Indiegogo for an ~ 10 by 15 by 4 mm size MEMS device the blew air into the nostrils to treat sleep apnea. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/airing-the-first-hoseless-maskless-micro-cpap#/story Check out http://aequor.vpweb.com/?prefix=www for a chemical that strips biofilms from devices and prevents their formation. Come to Boston on September 16 to learn about two closed loop serum glucose controllers – one hospital based, one wearable – that use noninvasive glucose sensors: http://www.mdgboston.org/ As cofounder of the Boston University Department of Biomedical Engineering and creator of their Medical Instrumentation course, I supervised teams of students in their senior year doing design projects. The concepts mostly originated from the clinicians and staff in my lab at the BU School of Medicine. While we can’t always prevent the elderly from falling, a lot can be done to prevent injury from falls. In Japan, construction people who work on ladders wear a suit that acts like a giant airbag in that it inflates quickly if the worker should fall and protects the head, neck and spine from injury. http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/1999/07/20569 Can a student group adapt this marketed product to the needs of the elderly, including the social need to look “normal” when wearing the device?

Chris Elliott
Chief Regulatory Officer at Leman Micro Devices SA
We use student projects to explore ideas that would be “nice to have” but that are not on our critical path. I would take something that you have often thought could be interesting and turn it into a project. Set the bar high, like looking for a 10x cost saving, and encourage the students to explore ideas that are too radical to do in the company.

Roberto de Filippo
Supporting edge to edge Mitral Valve repair
Mitral valve prosthesis.

Morgan Tierney
Advanced Engineering at Teleflex Europe
I think addressing infection in hospitals – I already had some students do a project on this few years ago and they came up with some nice ideas. With this project there is plenty of scope, information and opportunity for improvement!
With the pressure on antibiotics and the costs of Hospital related infections it’s a serious unmet need!
If you do a project on this I would love to see the outcome.

Maik Lösel
.gas is everywhere
Hello,

from my point of view it would be interesting if the “state of the art” technology in ventilation – especially in combination with anesthesia really is state of the art (in a technical and economic meaning) or do we paying too much, still for “80th technology”? And for what reason?

Cheers
Maik