A recently introduced database holds searchable information on more than 500 specific grades of materials and coatings approved for use in cardiovascular devices along with thousands of supporting research papers and reports. The Materials for Medical Devices Database: Cardiovascular Module is the product of ASM International, Materials Park, Ohio, (asminternational.org), and materials data software developer Granta Design in the U.K. The companies say the database, which has been in development for the last 30 months, is the first intended to support medical-device design.

Designers can browse or search the database several ways. “For example, researchers might want to deliver a particular drug and so are looking for a coating that will elute it,” says Don Lensner, group manager with ASM. “After the database finds the coating, the search might continue for a base metal compatible with the coating.”

Another search could be for metals compatible with blood. The user would select the metals icon and place them in a table. Then cross reference the list with materials biocompatible by FDA regulations. The database then identifies metals that match both requirements. The database also shows materials used in existing devices.

Other users might want to identify polymers for several conditions such as their implantable and mechanical characteristics. Mechanical properties of materials can be exported to spreadsheets, while the capability of exporting to FEA programs will be added later this year.

A database of this sort was sought by the medical-device community for decades, says Lensner. Even the FDA tried to create one in the 1990s. “The undertaking, however, was difficult because manufacturers were reluctant to provide data and there was little technology infrastructure to access existing data,” says Michael Helmus of Advance Nanotech, chairman of the ASM medical-devices database committee. Lensner adds that the database holds information from the public domain, and that it will be accessible on the Internet to individuals and small groups for a few thousand dollars per year and more to larger groups.