Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Rubber News
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • Digital Edition
    • End Markets
    • Special Reports
    • Newsletters
    • Resin pricing news
    • Videos
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • CEO Issue
    • Diversity
    • Best Places to Work
      • 2022 winners
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Fake Plastic Trees
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
  • Events
    • K Show Livestream
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Editorial Livestreams
    • Ask the Expert
    • Plastics News Events Library
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Injection Molding & Design Expo
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Numbers that Matter Live
    • Plastics in Politics Live
    • Sustainable Plastics Live
    • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings & Data
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Directory
  • Custom
    • Sponsored Content
    • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
    • Conair Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Classifieds
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Perspective
April 09, 2010 02:00 AM

Medical design &– consumer-style

John Nottingham
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    Many medical-device manufacturers still have the perception that innovating new medical products requires long development times and high development costs. That doesn't have to be the case.

    At Nottingham-Spirk Design Associates, we've been helping medical-device makers reverse that perception and to apply fast innovation techniques learned from 38 years of creating successful consumer products like the Spinbrush — the largest-selling oral-care appliance — Sherwin- Williams' Twist & Pour paint container system, Swiffer SweeperVac and more than 540 commercialized patents for our client companies.

    Health-care professionals are also consumers and it pays to consider that when innovating new medical products. In today's increasingly fast-paced market, the aim for designers is to help medical-device clients develop “outside the box” product ideas and solutions that lead to innovative, ergonomically designed and profitable products.

    In our case, the objective is to help medical original equipment manufacturers to deliver products to market in a cost-effective and timely manner by applying design, engineering and marketing expertise from the consumer field to the ever-growing medical and health-care fields. Furthermore, as home health care accelerates, this connection of consumer and medical fields is even more important.

    Let me provide our process as an example.

    To reduce health-care product creation and development costs and to reduce the time it takes to bring these products to market, Nottingham-Spirk follows a proven, seamless innovation system, all at one location. We have demonstrated that we can create user-desired products using an integrated product innovation process:

    * Initial market analysis to review existing competitive products and discover opportunity areas. Analyze current trends for potential new product ideas.

    * Discuss & Discover Groups, a trademarked process to evaluate the customer's unspoken and unmet needs through close observation of their interaction with existing products.

    * Assemble customer focus groups or one-on-one interviews in settings that replicate end-user facilities designed to emulate product usage and to assess current product concepts and prototypes in order to further refine and enhance ongoing product development. For instance, we have replicated hospital rooms in our facility and have had health-care professionals come in to use and evaluate product prototypes in a natural setting.

    The process then flows into rapid prototyping, engineering and feasibility testing that can be developed into intellectual property for products that fulfill customer needs and enhance the function and quality of those products. By following these consumer product techniques, we are able to use our expertise in translating the learning and insight into valuable information that helps to determine a creative direction for the development of the product. 

    This process can allow clients to experience higher profit margins and compressed development times, while providing a product the customer really wants. In addition, we further reduce the cost of product innovation by offering “shared-risk” development programs.

    We have a built-in geographical advantage. Being situated on the Cleveland Clinic/University Hospitals campus in northeast Ohio not only gives us access to world-class physicians and health-care professionals, but presents the opportunity to work closely with these professionals to provide ongoing qualitative and quantitative feedback on new and innovative medical-device concepts. 

    The medical-device market has become one of the fastest-growing segments in today's economy. To serve it properly, it's vital that designers and manufacturers learn from other end markets, and apply those lessons to help create a seamless invention and delivery process. That process should provide the same cost-saving benefits and product development advantages to medical devices as we might see on the shelves of our local supermarkets, big-box and hardware stores.

    John Nottingham is co-president of Nottingham-Spirk Design Associates of Cleveland, which has designed products for such firms as Procter & Gamble Co., Little Tikes and Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co.

    RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
    Column sensationalized plastics recycling issues
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Most Popular
    1
    California passes strictest plastics law in US, with EPR and recycling targets
    2
    Material Insights: Explaining the excise tax; why are PS prices rising; and how California will impact EPR
    3
    IRS provides guidance for how excise taxes will impact resin pricing
    4
    Congress debates pause on plastics growth, ‘disposable communities'
    5
    Packaging suppliers face winding pathway on the road to sustainability
    SIGN UP FOR TO RECEIVE THESE EMAILS AND ENEWSLETTERS
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please verify captcha.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
      • Digital Edition
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Diversity
        • Best Places to Work
          • 2022 winners
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
      • Newsletters
      • Resin pricing news
      • Videos
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
      • Fake Plastic Trees
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • K Show Livestream
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Injection Molding & Design Expo
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
      • Industry Events
      • Injection Molding & Design Expo
      • Livestreams/Webinars
        • Reuters Responsible Business Europe 2022
        • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • Editorial Livestreams
        • Polymer Points Live
        • Numbers that Matter Live
        • Plastics in Politics Live
        • Sustainable Plastics Live
      • Ask the Expert
      • Plastics News Events Library
        • Plastics Caps & Closures Library
        • Plastics in Healthcare Library
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
      • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings & Data
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Directory
    • Custom
      • Sponsored Content
      • LS Mtron Sponsored Content
      • Conair Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified