Developing health-care trends influence medical-device design

Ximedica's Aidan Petri discusses how critical industrial design is becoming in the growing and changing health-care market.

MIAMI (Nov. 18, 3:10 p.m. ET) -- Changes in how health care is delivered are ratcheting up the importance of industrial design in the process of developing new medical devices, according to Aidan Petrie, co-founder and chief innovation officer for design firm Ximedica LLC. Additionally, a push to find more environmentally friendly solutions is causing firms such as his to consider such factors as how much energy is expended in processing certain resins such as polycarbonate.

Petrie shared his thoughts in a presentation and a follow-up video interview in Miami at the annual international conference of the International Designers Society of America. In his talk, Petrie discussed, among other things, how pursuing and gaining certification from the Food & Drug Administration fundamentally altered how his Providence, R.I.-based company does business. The need to adopt and closely adhere to very strict process and documentation procedures positively affected every area in which the company works.

In the video, Petrie describes how the shift by hospitals to send more patients home earlier to administer their own medications has placed a priority on creating easy-to-use, aesthetically pleasing (e.g. non-intimidating) dispensing devices to fill that need.

At the same time, he notes, the medical sector’s need to place its highest priorities on product quality and safety often mean that the current notion of sustainability, or environmental friendliness, tends to take a back seat. But that does not mean that product designers are ignoring sustainability factors when recommending the materials and processes used to manufacture the end products. All other factors being equal, for example, his team will favor a virgin resin that consumes less energy to process than a more energy-intensive material of the same grade. These factors may be subtle, but are all part of the equation, he said.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Designers and processors interested in the health-care market can learn more at the Plastics News Global Group's April 13-14 Plastics in Medical Devices 2010 conference in Cleveland.

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