Medical Design and Outsourcing Archives - Page 3 of 154

March 2024: Medtronic AI, Ortho tech at AAOS 2024 and Abbott PFA

How Medtronic’s using AI: Artificial intelligence insights and advice Abbott bets on balloons in the pulsed field ablation battle How Noah Medical’s robotic Galaxy system goes deep into the lungs The biggest stories from AAOS 2024 Surgical robots don’t improve knee surgery revision rates, study says Seize the AI opportunity

Less than a year into his new role as Medtronic’s chief technology and innovation officer, Ken Washington was presenting on artificial intelligence to leaders of the company’s operating units.

One of the GMs stopped him and asked for help making sense of all the buzzwords and acronyms.

Perhaps you know the feeling. It’s hard to grasp how AI seems to be everywhere, with advanced computing power making sense of vast datasets. It’s in the voice assistants on our smartphones, the streaming services on our various screens, mapping systems in our cars, the chat bots who respond when we need customer service, and online services ra…

Select an optimal motor for your benchtop point-of-care testing device

Brushless DC motors are a promising alternative to traditionally favored stepper and DC motors in point-of-care testing devices, and each technology offers distinct advantages for some applications.

By Dan Cisier, Portescap

Portescap’s 20DAM-K digital linear actuator [Photo courtesy of Portescap]

In life-and-death medical situations, rapid and dependable sample testing is pivotal in ensuring fast and accurate treatments.

In the past, procedures like blood and urine sample testing traditionally required intricate equipment and highly trained technicians at specialized labs outside healthcare settings.

In order to deliver prompt and dependable outcomes, this conventional testing approach had to overcome hurdles such as sample transportation, potential congestion at testing facilities and shortages of technical experts. During the COVID-19 crisis, for example, PCR test results sometimes took se…

FDA removes dialysis-related products from device shortage list

The FDA has removed two dialysis-related product codes from its device shortage list.

The products — kidney perfusion system (product code KDN) and disposable kidney perfusion set (product code KDL) — had been on the FDA’s shortage list since January 2022.

The agency attributed the shortages to a “shortage or discontinuance of a component, part or accessory of the device” and shipping delays.

As of the May 2023 expiration of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the FDA no longer requires medical device manufacturers to report product shortages, though the agency encourages voluntary reporting of device production interruptions or permanent discontinuations.

The medical device shortages list now only includes five product codes, including automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and two types of oxygenator devices intended for extracorporeal circulation:

BYS: Oxygenators for long-term support (greater than 6 hours), added to…

Interpower launches production of Japanese medical plug

The newly designed Japanese 12A/125VAC medical plug [Image courtesy of Interpower]

NEWS RELEASE: Interpower launches production of newly designed Japanese 12A/125VAC medical plug

February 27, 2024 – After obtaining Japanese PSE approvals, Interpower launches production of its Japanese 12A/125VAC hospital-grade power cord and cord set.

With a Japanese hospital-grade plug on one end and an IEC 60320 C13 connector on the opposite end of a1.25 mm² VCTF cable, the cord set is ready to use right out of the box. A major benefit of the cord set is how the newly designed plug offers more flexibility in manufacturing custom cord length and color options for this cord set.

The part number for the new cord set with a C13 connector is 86277300, and for the plug and cord with an unterminated end, 86277310.

Advantages of Interpower’s new Japanese hospital-grade cord set include:

Japanese hospital-grade …

Heterogenous integration packs big innovation into small medical devices

Heterogenous integration can help device developers fit more innovative technologies into smaller devices.

By Dick Otte, Promex

[Image courtesy of Promex Industries]

The electronics industry began using the term heterogeneous integration (HI) about five years ago to describe a new approach to building semiconductor devices that would allow for greater density and capability. The legacy approach to making transistors, lines, and spaces smaller was becoming more difficult due to the limitations of lithography. Thus, a new idea was spawned: adding material and/or parts to die on conventional complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafers to add functionality beyond what is inherent in silicon CMOS.

John Bowers at the University of California Santa Barbara pioneered an early HI example, placing a small piece of indium phosphide onto a waveguide fabricated on a silicon wafer. Doing so made it possible …

Trelleborg starts construction of Costa Rica manufacturing facility

NEWS RELEASE: Trelleborg Breaks Ground on New Facility in Costa Rica Plymouth, MN, February 2024 – Trelleborg Healthcare & Medical is breaking ground on a 107,600 square feet/10,000 square meter manufacturing facility in Costa Rica with construction scheduled to be completed in 2025. The facility will be in the Evolution Free Zone Industrial Park in the Alajuela Province in the town of Grecia. The decision for the new site is driven by Trelleborg Healthcare & Medical’s strategic goal to help customers consolidate their value chains, reducing overall costs. As the company’s first facility in Central America, it will facilitate supply chain continuity through a global manufacturing and distribution base and support key customers in nearshoring production. Linda Muroski, President of Trelleborg Healthcare & Medical, says: “We want to provide customers with finished medical devices, components and assemblies in one location. By producing the components at a singl…

Qosina adds Pharma+ tubing retainers

NEWS RELEASE: Qosina Introduces New Pharma+™ Tubing Retainers

[Photo courtesy of Qosina]

Ronkonkoma, NY—Qosina, a global supplier of OEM single-use components to the medical and biopharmaceutical industries, is pleased to introduce Pharma+™ tubing retainers to its extensive portfolio.

This new tubing retention solution for leak-free fluid transfer features a patent-pending lead-in ramp, creating a complete 360° compression. With an operating pressure of 80 psi (120 psi burst), these components are cleanroom-molded from polyketone (PK) and suitable for several sterilization methods including gamma radiation, X-ray and autoclaving. These tubing retainers work seamlessly with silicone, TPE and PVC tubing, making them a versatile choice for high-pressure bioprocess applications. They are installed using cable tie tension tools and are recyclable for easy disposal.

Learn m…

How Hologic tapped AI and volumetric imaging for cervical cytology — and potential applications beyond

Hologic designed its Genius cytology technology for more efficient and accurate review of cervix cell samples — and there’s more to come.

Hologic says its Genius cytology technology reduces false negatives of high-grade squamous intraepithelial and more severe lesions by 28% compared to microscopic review. [Photo courtesy of Hologic]

Hologic‘s Genius cytology system uses new scanning technology and artificial intelligence to flag cervical cancer cells and pre-cancerous lesions.

Hologic won a de novo classification in January 2024 for its Genius Digital Diagnostics System and Genius Cervical AI algorithm for cervical cytology. Besides replacing Hologic’s ThinPrep Imaging System — used for the majority of cervical cancer screenings in the U.S. — the technology behind the Genius system could one day also help screen for other kinds of cancer like bladder cancer as well as infectious organisms, Ho…

The benefits and applications of photochemical etching for medical technology

Photochemical etching offers high precision and fast production for specialty medical device manufacturers.

By Jace Harwood, Fotofab

Photochemical etching lets device manufacturers quickly meet high volume demands. [Photo courtesy of Fotofab]

Complex, precision metal components are found in a variety of medical industry applications, and the demand for these parts is increasing with the medical technology industry’s rapid advancements. With robotics and AI technology’s increased use in medical technology environments, the need for highly specified and calibrated parts will only become greater and more urgent.

Acknowledging this evolution, traditional manufacturing processes are not always the best-suited solution. Longstanding manufacturing methods such as stamping, computer numerical control (CNC) machining and laser cutting can negatively affect the metal’s integrity and compromise the performance of t…

Nature-inspired biomimetic stimulation for next-gen neuroprosthetics

Restoring natural sensory feedback results in functional and cognitive benefits for leg prosthesis users. The team at ETH Zurich applied this in neuroprosthetics. [Image courtesy of Pietro Comaschi/ETH Zurich]

A team of researchers at ETH Zurich found evidence that neuroprosthetics work better when they use signals that are inspired by nature.

The team, working under Professor Stanisa Raspopovic at the ETH Zurich Neuroengineering Lab, garnered attention years ago with prosthetic legs that enabled amputees to feel sensations from the artificial body part for the first time, according to ETH. This device connected to the sciatic nerve in the thigh through implanted electrodes. The electrical connection enabled the neuroprosthesis to communicate with the patient’s brain.

With this connection, the neuroprosthetics could relay information on the constant changes in pressure detected on the prosthetic fo…

Taking medical device sterilization in-house with vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP)

Steris LTS-V low temperature sterilizer chambers use vaporized hydrogen peroxide and come in four sizes ranging from 850 L to 9,000 L. [Photo courtesy of Steris]

The FDA’s addition of vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP) to its list of Established Category A methods offers an opportunity for manufacturers to bring device sterilization in-house.

VHP can be used as an alternative to ethylene oxide (referred to as EtO or EO) sterilization for many medical devices due to their similar material compatibility profiles. To skip the time and expense of shipping their products to a commercial EtO sterilizer, some device developers are considering adding a VHP sterilization chamber within their own manufacturing facilities.

To help device designers and engineers decide whether VHP is a good fit for their products, Medical Design & Outsourcing spoke with experts at Steris, which uses EtO, radiation and VHP t…

Command Medical Products recapitalized by PE fund Argosy Healthcare

NEWS RELEASE: Argosy Healthcare Partners Completes Recapitalization of Command Medical Products

Wayne, PA., February 20, 2024 – Argosy Healthcare Partners (“AHP”), a lower middle market private equity fund focused exclusively on healthcare, and a division of Argosy Capital Group, Inc., a diversified investment firm with $3.3 billion in assets under management (“AUM”), announced today a recapitalization and partnership with Command Medical Products (“Command” or the “Company”). The Company provides contract manufacturing services for the production of single-use disposable medical devices to global medical device original equipment manufacturers (“OEMs”) and life sciences customers. AHP is honored to partner with Command and support its next stage of growth.

Command Medical Products, headquartered in Ormond Beach, Florida, and founded in 1987 by David Slick, provides customized clean room manufacturing of single use medical devices leveraging key …