November 1, 2011

Features

Advanced materials advance laser surgery

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Joe Jancsurak, Editor, Medical Design, JoeJancsurak@penton.com
Illustrations by J. Pryll

Safe removal of dangerous tumor now possible with handheld laser scalpels engineered with "omnidirectional" light capabilities....

Medtech hits stride with wireless foot switches

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Peter Engstrom, Managing Director, and Maurizio Lauria, Product Manager, .steute, Ridgefield, CT, steuteusa.com

Wireless foot switches for medical equipment OEMs...

Battery holders being designed for your design

Oct 13, 2011 9:48 AM, Thomas Blaha, President, Memory Protection Devices, Inc, Farmingdale, NY batteryholders.com

Today’s battery holders have lower profiles, smaller footprints, excellent chemical resistance, and resist drops and vibrations like never before. The following are recent breakthroughs in medical battery holder design....

Identifying a quality machine shop

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Jim Hale, General Manager and Don Beals, Quality Director, Aztalan Engineering Inc

Here are the questions to ask to identify a quality shop that can handle the machining of medical parts....

Departments

Editorial: Zombies, vampires, and medtech

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Joe Jancsurak

A spooky press release arrived in my inbox just days before Halloween. It had to do with zombies, vampires, and engineers. That’s right, engineers....

ISO Watch

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM

Power Sources Unlimited, Inc (PSUI)(psui.com), Wrentham, MA, received ISO 9001:2008 certification for its Quality Management System. ...

MEDICAL MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY: Setting fiber laser parameters for precision laser trepanning of surgical devices

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Kip Brockmyre, President, and Dr. Paul Jacobs, former vice president of R&D, LFI Medical, Smithfield, RI

AN ANALYSIS AND EXPERIMENTAL TEST RESULTS SHOW THAT THERE ARE OPTIMUM FIBER LASER PARAMETERS TO PROVIDE RAPID AND COST-EFFECTIVE PRECISION LASER TREPANNING OF SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS....

Industry Viewpoint: Device makers can take COTS, but only with clear SOUP

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Chris Hobbs, Senior Developer, Safe Systems, QNX Software Systems Limited

Manufacturers in many industries reduce development times by using COTS (commercial-off-the-shelf) software and hardware in their products, but medical device manufacturers may be reluctant to follow suit due to concerns that COTS implies SOUP (software of uncertain provenance) and thus may compromise device safety and premarket approval by the FDA and other regulatory agencies....

R&D Notebook: Knowing elements of style

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Ted Kucklick, author of The Medical Device Handbook and CEO Cannuflow Incorporated, San Jose, CA, www.cannuflow.com

This is the second of a two-part series. Part one appeared in the October issue (page 43) and discussed Rules 1-3. This second part begins with Rule #4....

Tech Spotlight: Inspection/Measurement: Testing catheters and other medical devices

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM, Stephen Franks, Executive Vice President,TM Electronics Inc, Boylston, MA, www.tmelectronics.com

Instruments that perform tests on medical devices must work reliably and repeatability. They must be cost effective, operator-friendly, and time-efficient. Often, these requirements cannot be met with an off-the-shelf instrument. ...

Tech Spotlight: Inspection/Measurement

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM

The Vision Inspector Benchmark rapidly captures and measures complete part details with micron accuracies...

News

IBM's Watson wows 'em at Cleveland Clinic Summit

Oct 14, 2011 5:03 PM, By Joe Jancsurak, Editor

Former Vice President Dick Cheney was there to share his own cardio care experience during a one-on-one with NBC's Robert Bazell, as was GE CEO and the president's "jobs czar," Jeff Immelt, who came to discuss the global economy and the medtech biz in a one-one-one with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. But one of the surprise show-stoppers at the Cleveland Clinic's Medical Innovation Summit on "State of the Heart Cardiovascular Technologies" held two weeks ago was named Watson, as in IBM's Watson....

Smart technology now runs skin deep

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM

An ultra-thin skin-like patch that mounts directly onto the skin like a temporary tattoo combines electronic components for sensing, medical diagnostics, communications, and human-machine interfaces. The skin-mounted electronic innovation was developed by a team of researchers led by John A. Rogers, professor of engineering at the University of Illinois in collaboration with Northwestern University engineering professor Yonggang Huang....

Speakers set for Silicone Elastomers US 2011

Nov 11, 2011 9:56 AM

BlueStar Silicones, Momentive Performance Materials, and Wacker Chemical Corporation are among the companies represented by the lineup of speakers at Silicone Elastomers US 2011, Dec 6 and 7 at the Hyatt Rosemont (IL)....

FDA unveils innovation initiatives

Nov 1, 2011 12:00 PM

FDA's "Driving Biomedical Innovation: Initiatives for Improving Products for Patients ," addresses concerns about the sustainability of the medical product development pipeline, which is slowing down despite record investments in research and development....