Medical Design articles from October 2008

Medical Design archives from October 2008

May the best man for device makers win.(EDITORIAL)
October 1, 2008... While considering the two main candidates running for President of the U.S., entertain this question: Which will be better for the U.S. economy, or more to the point, best for the medical-device community? To answer that question, it is useful...

Hearing aid maker simulates sound with FEA.(MEDICAL NEWS IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2008... A manufacturer of hearing aids found that finite element analysis (FEA) lets its engineering team simulate vibration velocity, generate acoustic holography in 2D and 3D, and measure sound-pressure levels inside and outside a hearing instrument....

How well do you think you manufacture?(MEDICAL NEWS IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2008... Medical-equipment manufacturers and suppliers that would like to measure their performance developing new products are invited to participate in a free study conducted by International TechneGroup Inc (iti-global.com). The study is conducted by...

MD&M Minneapolis set for October 21 to 23.(MEDICAL NEWS IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2008... MD&M Minneapolis 2008 showcases the latest advances in medical grade materials, assembly and electronic components, production equipment, automation and controls, packaging materials and machinery, medical-device quality and validation...

Gripper gives surgeons a hand in microsurgery.(MEDICAL NEWS IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2008... A small handlike gripper, only about 500-[mu]m diameter when open, can grasp tissue or cell samples making it easier for doctors to perform minimally invasive surgery, such as biopsies. The tiny device can be magnetically guided around from...

Positioner promises nano resolution.(MEDICAL NEWS IN BRIEF)
October 1, 2008... A tiny motorized positioning device has twice the dexterity of similar devices being developed for applications that include biological sensors and more compact, powerful computer hard drives. The monolithic comb drive, designed by Purdue...

Executive's guide to protecting IP.(INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT)(Company overview)
October 1, 2008... Intellectual property lawsuits are on the rise in the U.S. In fact, the number of patent lawsuits filed in the country increased 58% from 1995 to 2005, according to the United States Federal Courts. Further, protecting IP is more challenging...

Help for understanding 'good reprint practices'.(FDA & REGULATIONS)
October 1, 2008... The FDA has released a draft guidance titled "Good Reprint Practices for the Distribution of Medical Journal Articles and Medical or Scientific Reference Publications on Unapproved New Uses of Approved Drugs and Approved or Cleared Medical...

Final rule clarifies labeling changes.(FDA & REGULATIONS)
October 1, 2008... A new rule (effective Sept. 22) clarifies when companies can modify device labeling without prior FDA approval. Under the rule, manufacturers can add or strengthen the contraindications, warnings, precautions or adverse-reactions sections of...

IEEE and IEC expand agreement.(FDA & REGULATIONS)
October 1, 2008... An addendum to the original Dual Logo Agreement for the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) permits joint development of projects in both organizations, leading to...

Guidance for reduced user fees.(FDA & REGULATIONS)
October 1, 2008... Small businesses that want to save money on fiscal 2009 medical device-user fees, which became effective Oct. 1, can get some help from a guidance published recently by the FDA. The guidance says small businesses may qualify for discounted...

Clearance for glaucoma laser.(FDA & REGULATIONS)
October 1, 2008... The FDA granted 510(k) clearance for the 790 laser for performing titanium-sapphire laser trabeculoplasty by Solx, Inc., Waltham, Mass. The device reduces intraocular pressure (IOP) in patients with primary open angle glaucoma and poorly...

Endevco earns ISO for quality management systems.(BUSINESS NEWS FROM CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS)
October 1, 2008... A developer of vibration, shock, and pressure sensors has passed the latest ISO 9001:2000 maintenance standard with a score of 960 out of 1000. Endevco Corp., San Juan Capistrano, Calif. (endevco.com) received accreditation for its...

Partnership to specialize in nanofibers.(BUSINESS NEWS FROM CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS)
October 1, 2008... Struktol Company of America and the University of Akron have partnered to form SNS Nano Fiber Technology LLC in Uniontown, Ohio, and start production on Nanosan, a nanostructured nonwoven material. SNS combines Struktol's experience with...

Equipment manufacturer launches certified preowned program.(BUSINESS NEWS FROM CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS)
October 1, 2008... A recently formed business unit will focus on rebuilding and reselling previously owned Multivac equipment. The Multivac owned unit in Kansas City, Mo., (multivac.com) will be headed by Tom Ritter. "Multivac machinery is commonly found on the...

Momentive expands in England.(BUSINESS NEWS FROM CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS)
October 1, 2008... Momentive Performance Materials, Albany, N.Y. (momentive.com/healthcare) has announced plans to expand its custom compound facility in Lostock, England. The company says the expansion is driven by demand for its products. The firm intends to...

RPD group earns ISO certification.(BUSINESS NEWS FROM CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS)
October 1, 2008... Manufacturing and product development firm Rapid Product Development Group Inc. (RPDG), San Diego, Calif., (rpdg.com) has been awarded ISO-9001:2000 certification. "It ensures on-going compliance to standards of performance because certified...

PolyOne Corp. licenses bio plasticizer from Battelle.(BUSINESS NEWS FROM CONTRACT MANUFACTURERS)
October 1, 2008... PolyOne Corp., Avon Lake, Ohio, (polyone.com) a developer of specialized polymer materials, services, and solutions, has entered into an exclusive license arrangement for a series of biobased plasticizer patents owned by Battelle. The company...

Making IV components and filters.(MEDICAL MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY)
October 1, 2008... Few companies make all the parts that go into IV devices. Special adhesives might come from one firm, filters and media from another, and secondary operations from a third. Here's a brief description of a few secondary operations that go into...

Miniature encoder keeps microscope in focus.(THE ART OF MOTION CONTROL)
October 1, 2008... Researchers are conducting more genetic experiments that call for use of inverted microscopes so they can view and track the activity of discrete molecules within living cells. An inverted microscope uses a light over the specimen and the...

Printing inexpensive antennas to track expensive products.(PACKAGING WRAP-UP)
October 1, 2008... Recently patented technology allows printing conductive metal onto non-porous substrates thereby providing applications ranging from sensors to printed circuitry. One area of particular interest is the production of RFID antennas for packages...

Five tips for designing two shot, silicone-thermoplastic parts.(DESIGNING WITH ADVANCED MATERIALS)
October 1, 2008... Two shot, silicone-thermoplastic molding works well when placing a soft silicone cover over or in combination with a hard thermoplastic. A medical example might be the soft-grip silicone handle on a surgical instrument that has a base of rigid...

How to be welcomed (or tolerated) in the OR.(R & D NOTEBOOK)
October 1, 2008... Dr. Lanny Johnson, a pioneering orthodpedic surgeon, emarked that "The foundation of business is innovation, and its foundation in medicine is clinical observation." For medical-device development, the most important place is in the hospital,...

Bioabsorbable polymers promise unusual tubes and more.(TODAY'S TUBING TECHNOLOGY)
October 1, 2008... The recent developments of bioabsorbable polymers have the potential to significantly change medical devices. The polymers, an emerging area, could someday soon perform vital functions in the body and them simply be absorbed after serving their...

Are the batteries worth charging? Power monitor tells.(DESIGNING WITH ELECTRONICS)
October 1, 2008... A lot of hospital equipment runs on batteries. Heavy devices are cart-mounted so they can be rolled to wherever needed. Fresh batteries for them and hand-portable devices are often swapped for drained ones. But are the drained batteries worth...

Making tubing connections a snap.(INNOVATIONS)
October 1, 2008... Healthcare professionals sometimes make misconnections when using luer fittings to connect medical tubing because luers will fit almost any tube. A new connector from Colder Products, St. Paul, Minn., (colder.com), the SRC Small-bore Connector,...

Pumping life into hurting hearts: the magnetic levitation of heart-pump impellers, small pacemakers, and tiny tissue knives are a few devices working to keep hearts beating longer.(Cover story)
October 1, 2008... The American Heart Assn. says one in three deaths in the Western world is caused by heart disease. With only 20,000 transplant hearts available each year, new treatments should be well received. This cardiac market has large revenue...

Building strong yet lightweight hip implants: a rapid manufacturing technique called electron beam melting builds 3D lattice structures that encourage bone growth into medical implants.
October 1, 2008... How often has one of your designs been a trade-off of weight versus strength? Too heavy, and you waste material. Too light, and parts might fail. Well, here's good news. A recent technology fabricates components that are strong and lightweight....

Ideas and lasers build better stents: the holy grail for stent designers is to make them adjustable and removable--and overcome a few other problems. Even manufacturers have a few ideas.
October 1, 2008... Self-expanding stents are a remarkable development. They come in a variety of sizes and designs intended for blood vessels, airways, and even intestines. They have just a few downsides. For instance, tissue tends to grow in and over bare metal...

Processing a clearer medical image: programmable logic provides a flexible, low-risk path to the successful design of MRI machines, patient-monitoring devices, and more.
October 1, 2008... Gone are the days of visiting a doctor's or dentist's office to have X-rays taken and being told to wait hours or even days to have results returned from a lab. A growing and aging population knows more about their healthcare options than ever...

Spray valve for multiple coatings.(TECH SPOTLIGHT Pumps & Valves)
October 1, 2008... The 784S-SS aseptic spray valve can dispense stent coatings, saline solutions, silicone oils, and other low- to medium-viscosity fluids used in medical-device production. The valve features an aseptic design with an entrapment free fluid-flow...

Mini self-actuating valves.(TECH SPOTLIGHT Pumps & Valves)
October 1, 2008... A line of miniature self-actuating valves and elastomeric valve components are for liquids and gases. The line includes one-way check valves, pressure-relief valves, access valves, and dispensing valves. Types include duckbill valves, umbrella...

Advanced fluid control goes modular.(TECH SPOTLIGHT Pumps & Valves)
October 1, 2008... The Liquid Control PR70 meter, mix, and dispense system has a modular dispense valve that features multiple seat styles, an independent air cylinder, adjustable snuff-back control, and customized material mixing. An intuitive user interface...

Pumphead simplifies tube changes.(TECH SPOTLIGHT Pumps & Valves)
October 1, 2008... The 313D aseptic dental irrigation pumphead for continuous tubing is for dental applications requiring frequent tube changes, and flow rates from 0.25 to 3,000 ml/min. The fluid being pumped is contained in the USP Class VI-approved tubing, so...

Clean series pneumatic valves.(TECH SPOTLIGHT Pumps & Valves)
October 1, 2008... The O-E series of pneumatic valves are ultrasonically cleaned for applications that use oxygen, air, and other inert gases. The miniature valves are available in 2-way or 3-way, normally closed, or fully ported. A patented valving system...

Small-footprint positive displacement technology.(TECH SPOTLIGHT Pumps & Valves)
October 1, 2008... The RL series combines rotary lobe technology and efficiency in a small package, bringing the benefits of positive displacement technology to a 1.75-lb. unit 6 in. long. The small size is made possible through a patent-pending assembly that...

Heaters get really small.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... Ultramic 600 advanced ceramic heaters are available in smaller sizes, a few millimeters width and several centimeters long. The high-thermal conductivity aluminum nitride ceramic composition is paired with a proprietary, thermally matched,...

Linear motor X-Y base resolves to 2.5 [mu]m.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... The HoneyComb Series of linear stepper X-Y positioning bases comes in seven sizes with square or rectangular working areas ranging from 375 x 375 mm to 750 x 1,500 mm. The base's moving element, the forcer, is capable of move speeds to 1.5...

Transformers for portable medical devices.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... Model 4283-1250 Series high-voltage transformers drive high impedance loads requiring up to 2,500 Vdc. The application-specific units can be custom configured for portable medical devices such as defibrillators. A center-tapped secondary for...

Motors for matching motor-to-load inertia.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... MCG ID series brush-commutated dc servo motors with higher inertia armatures provide motor-to-load inertia matching capability for medium- to high-reflected load inertias. Two frame sizes (NEMA 23 and NEMA 34) power equipment for applications...

Combination display and controller.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... The DS-3000 four-channel display includes controller functions. A user can connect up to four iLoad series load cells and view individual or total loads or both in three different units: kilograms, pounds, and newtons. A user can also interface...

Moldable, extrudable rubber.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... MED-4714 high-consistency rubber (HCR) is a soft, pliable silicone elastomer capable of curing into a moldable component. It is designed for transfer or compression molding and extrusion. In addition, the product cures with heat without the...

Cartridge removes alkaline phosphatase.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... The BioPak C disposable ultrafiltration cartridge is an in-line filter that minimizes alkaline phosphatase (ALP), a compound released by bacteria that may be present in immunoassay and clinical analyzer feed water used to prepare buffers, make...

Configurable PDFs for board-level shielding.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... Configurable drawings in PDF are available for single and two piece, board-level shields for download from the developer's website. The user first chooses through-hole mounting with pins or standard surface mounting. Depending on this choice,...

Brushless dc motors up to 500W.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... A line of high-efficiency brushless dc motors is well suited to medical, packaging, and material-handling applications. The motors come in 15 to 65-mm ODs, 1 to 500 W, 3-phase delta winding construction with three internal hall sensors. The...

Molten zinc alloy works as an adhesive.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... A special injected metal assembly (IMA) method reduces costs as it improves quality, performance, and productivity. The company replaces medical assembly joining operations such as welding, soldering, press fitting, crimping, and the like, with...

Waveplates surpass quartz or mica.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... Sapphire waveplates are for mission-critical visible and IR polarization control components. They feature 0.25 [mu]m to 4.7 [mu]m transmission, which is >98% when AR coated on both sides. The waveplaines have a Moh 9 hardness and chemical...

These encoders work in vacuum.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... A line of linear encoders is intended for work in high vacuums. Two models are for high vacuum to [10.sup.-7] mbar and another is for ultrahigh vacuum up to [10.sup.-11] mbar. Features include vacuum-compatible PCBs, adhesives and paints that...

Adhesive cures with UV or LED light.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... Dymax MD 1000 series medical-device adhesives make possible high-speed, high volume bonding of medical-device housings, tube sets, catheters, enclosures, and housings. These solvent-free adhesives replace ultrasonic welding and costly two-part...

Triage for device complaints.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... TrackWise software allows logging complaints using intuitive forms, which prompt call-center reps to enter required product, patient, and event information. Questions on the form deal with the product type and complaint category, ensuring that...

Industry guide for medical diagnostic and implants.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... A free industry guide has designs ideas on how to save weight and space when designers build proven heater, flex circuit, and temperature sensors into medical diagnostic and implantable-device components. These devices can improve In Vitro...

Computer-on-module for embedded applications.(PRODUCTS & SERVICES)
October 1, 2008... ETXexpress-PC computer-on-module is for data processing and multimedia conversion and output. The module outperforms the previous 65nm dual-core processor with faster core speeds (up to 2.26 GHz), more L2 cache (6 MB) and a faster FSB (1,066...

Medical design and manufacturing Minneapolis.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... October 21 to 23--The MD&M Minneapolis conference and exposition at the Minneapolis Convention Center will present advances in medical materials, assembly, and electronic components. Other exposition areas include CAD and CAM software,...

Pilgrim User Conference: in pursuit of excellence.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Conference news)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... November 9 to 12--Pilgrim Software, a developer of Enterprise Compliance and Quality Management (ECQM) software, will launch its 2008 User Conference, Fusion VII: In Pursuit of Excellence at the Clearwater Beach Marriott Suites, Fla., with a...

Cleveland clinic innovations summit.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... November 10 to 12--Join Robert Rubin of Citigroup, Jim Tobin with Boston Scientific, Tim Ring from CR Bard, Karen Licitra at Johnson & Johnson, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), former Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Tommy...

Medica 2008.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... November 9 to 12--More than 4,000 exhibitors and 137,000 attendees are expected for the Medica 2008, 40th International Trade Fair with Congress - World Forum for Medicine. The event provides an opportunity to view new technologies from around...

World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... December 8 to 10--The 4th Annual World Healthcare Innovation and Technology Congress in Washington, D.C., will bring together more than 400 service, payer, policy, and technology executives to address the issue of leveraging information...

Medical trade fair in Russia.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... December 8 to 12--The Expocentr Fairgrounds in Moscow, Russia, will host Zdravookhraneniye, 18th International Exhibition of Heath Care, Medical Engineering and Pharmaceuticals. The event will be jointly organized by Messe Dusseldorf and...

Life Science Alley Conference & Expo.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Conference news)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... December 10--More than 1,500 life science industry leaders from over 25 states and 12 countries are expected for the 7th Annual LifeScience Alley Conference & Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The event will feature four keynote...

Vision show and conference.(MEETINGS & SHOWS)(Calendar)
October 1, 2008... March 31 to April 2--North America's largest machine vision trade show and conference, The Vision Show, will be held at the Phoenix Convention Center. The 2008 event attracted 112 exhibitors, the most in nearly a decade, and 2,500 attendees for...

I said, it wrote ...(RECOVERY ROOM)
October 1, 2008... A sports-medicine doctor decided to try using medical computer-voice recognition software to dictate her patient notes and manuscript preparation for books. She spent weeks "training" the computer to recognize her voice and accent....

Immune attack.(RECOVERY ROOM)
October 1, 2008... Immune Attack is an educational video game for senior-level high-school biology and entry-level college students to introduce the basic concepts of human immunology. The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) designed the game as a...

Caffeine intoxication.(RECOVERY ROOM)
October 1, 2008... Scientists at Johns Hopkins believe that the caffeinated energy drinks should carry prominent labels that note caffeine doses and warn of potential health risks. Many of the drinks, such as Red Bull, claim to be performance enhancers and...