Some medical products are complex to design, but the Internet can link designers, molders and material suppliers, speakers said in San Francisco at an Antec 2002 session on Web-based collaboration.
``We can have multiple teams, multiple companies working on these things for years to get these products to the marketplace,'' said Len Czuba, a medical product designer who runs Len Czuba Enterprises Inc. of Lombard, Ill.
Team members can log onto a secure Web site and see, all at the same time, how changes in one part affect the total product.
Session moderator Karen Winkler, medical industry manager of Dow Chemical Co.'s Milford, Mass., site, said Dow has studied setting up a Web platform for medical part design work.
The site could include a supplier finder and a materials search function.
Another speaker, Marcia Madrigal of the Food and Drug Administration, walked the audience through how to use the FDA's Web site sections for medical devices.
