Medical product design

With a medical product designed, it must be tested thoroughly, not just to verify its efficacy and safety, but to assure that it has those characteristics that embody a successful product. There are strategies for managing the prototyping and testing process in ways that enhance the product s likelihood of success. 

Le Cocq, A. D., Application of Human Factors Engineering in Medical Product Design, Journal of Clinical Engineering, Vol. 12, No. 4,1987, pp. 271-277. 

Wiklunk ME (2005) The rising bar, medical product design excellence. In Wiklund ME, Stephen B, Wilcox SB (eds) Designing usability into medical products. CRC Press, Florida... 

There are also differing standards between the markets in each of these countries. For instance, the telecom market has vastly different safety requirements than the patient-contact medical market. So, it is important to determine the target market early in the product design process. These market differences will also be included in the lEC standards harmonizing efforts. 

From ships to submarines to mining the sea floor, certain plastics can survive sea environments, which are considered more hostile than those on earth or in space. For water-surface vehicles many different plastic products have been designed and used successfully in both fresh and the more hostile seawater. Figure 2-55 is an example where extensive use is made using unreinforced and reinforced plastics meeting structural and nonstructural product requirements. Included are compartments, electronic scanners, radomes, optically transparent devices, food storage and dispensing containers, medical products, buoyant devices, temperature insulators, and many more. 

A problem had arisen with molded parts from a medical products company. Some injection-molded sheets were exhibiting small translucent areas (gels) within the opaque polymeric material, which had been designated as non-melt areas. One theory for the source of the non-melt was that a contaminant was present, while another postulate was that these areas represented a cold slug coming from the sprue. One sheet was chosen for analysis since the area of non-melt within it was largest. Both the non-melt area as well as a "normal" area were tested. 

The regulation also stipulates that a maximum of three courses of treatment with chemically synthesised allopathic veterinary medical products or antibiotics within one year (or no more than one course of treatment if the productive life cycle is less than one year) is acceptable. These regulations are designed to encourage the use of preventive management and alternative treatments for the control of parasites and diseases. Vaccinations, veterinary medicine treatments for parasites and any compulsory eradication schemes established by Member States are exempt from the treatment maximums, in order to ensure animal welfare. 

Since the design of the first targeted polyplexes more than 20 years ago [97, 134], numerous efforts have been made to develop polyplexes for use in medical products, both in pharmacological animal studies and in human studies. Therapeutic modalities include ex vivo treatment of isolated human patient cells, localized in vivo treatments, and - currently the most challenging delivery scenario - in vivo targeted intravenous delivery. 

A dosage form is a medicated product specially designed for administration depending upon the routes to the patient for the diagnosis and treatment of disease. 

Although somewhat justifiable for certain hospital and medical products, these are very hazardous in wastes. This practice should be reevaluated. Other throw-away items, such as pens and cameras are designed because of marketing motivations and contribute to the waste-disposal load. 

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