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Medical Device Prototyping: A comprehensive overview

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Home / Resource Center / Medical Device Prototyping: A comprehensive overview

Medical Device Prototyping: A comprehensive overview

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Table of Contents

Whitepaper

The complete guide to
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly

dfm dload

Tips to simplify designs

Practical steps to early DFM integration

Strategies to choosing suppliers

Actionable advice from industry leaders

Whitepaper

The complete guide to
Design for Manufacturing and Assembly

Tips to simplify designs

Practical steps to early DFM integration

Strategies to choosing suppliers

Actionable advice from industry leaders

Medical device prototype for measuring blood sugar level, showcasing innovative design and technology.

Developing a deep understanding of medical device prototyping is pivotal for those involved in productizing healthcare technologies. 

This guide is here to help, as a primer that aims to help clarify thinking and prioritize decision making in choosing from so many options. It will walk you through the big steps in creating effective and informative medical prototypes. It’ll help you to ensure that your outcomes meet the demands of a complex regulatory environment. It’ll also help you deliver outcomes that embody practical and informative realizations that accelerate development. 

By probing the unique challenges and benefits entailed in medical device prototyping, you’ll optimize your design process, reduce time-to-market, and ultimately deliver innovations that enhance patient care and safety.

What is medical device prototyping?

Prototyping is the process whereby preliminary models of medical devices can be tested and refined, prior to mass production. This is key to assessing functionality, compliance with standards and effecting improvements in the development. Timely prototyping can seriously reduce time-to-market, by early and aggressive optimization

Medical device prototyping typical stages

1. Concept development: Initial ideas and designs are created in sketches, notes and CAD.

2. Material selection: Materials are chosen based on the expected usage.

3. Prototyping: 3D printing, CNC machining or injection molding are employed.

4. Testing and evaluation: The prototype is exposed to rigorous testing, to evaluate its performance in all regards.

5. Iteration: Outcomes from testing drive refinements, iterations and further prototypes.

 

Prototyping is fundamental in medical development, optimizing the outcome and certification of innovative medical devices. It equips designers and engineers to evaluate ideas, validate concepts and ensure regulatory and performance standards are met prior to commercialization.

Benefits of early and thorough prototyping

  • Risk reduction: Design flaws are captured early, minimizing costly late-stage corrections.
 
  • Drives innovation: Encourages brave solutions and rapid iteration/validation.
 
  • Regulatory compliance: Thoroughly recorded for compliance purposes, driven by wide ranging standards.

Challenges

  • Cost and time: Prototyping is typically expensive and time-consuming.
 
  • Complexity: Medical devices often involve complexity that is difficult to prototype.
 
  • Material limitations: Building with materials that simulate production properties is hard.

Design development stages in medical device prototyping

Conceptualization: Generation of ideas and initial designs, sketches, early 3D models etc.

  • Design: Creating increasingly detailed 3D models to address functionality and user requirements.
 
  • Prototype creation: Build incrementally more representative prototypes.
 
  • Testing and evaluation: Evaluate functional, usability and safety through increasingly rigorous testing.
 
  • Iteration: Refine executions based on test results, repeating the entire process.

Considerations for real-world application

Regulatory compliance: Testing ensures adherence to applicable standards.

  • Safety and reliability: Prioritization of patient safety and device reliability are paramount.

  • User training: Consideration of training healthcare professionals and patients is important to market appreciation.

  • Scalability: Design must account for the needs of mass production and market demand.

Design manufacturability and its impact on prototyping

Design for manufacture (DFM) connects the prototypes to cost-effective production at scale. DFM impacts prototyping through:

 
  • Delivering material and process compatibility with norms.
 
  • Optimizing production speed, cost and consistency.

Material selection

  • Biocompatibility: Ensuring materials are safe for patient use, where prototypes are to be patient tested.
 
  • Durability: Specifying materials that will withstand use and sterilization.
 
  • Functionality: Selecting materials that meet the stresses the device will experience.

Human factors and user experience as drivers of the design process

Carefully considering the user experience ensures the device is both user-ready and effective:

  • Ergonomics: Designing for comfortable and intuitive use by professionals and patients must drive all stages of development.
 
  • Usability testing: Conducting tests to validate the ergonomics and function ensure targets are being met.
 
  • Accessibility: Basing the user experience assessment on real-user variations in capabilities

Proof of concept and prototype testing

Proof of concept (POC) testing validates the initial design assumptions and feasibility and involves:

  • Functional testing: Assessing whether the prototype performs as planned.
 
  • Usability testing: Validates the ergonomics, intuitive use and patient/professional experience.
 
  • Safety Testing: Confirming the device is safe for use in real-world conditions.
 

This process refines the design before commitment to mass production.

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Medical Device Prototype Creation

The design of a medical device and its function must be represented in the prototype. A carefully considered and evaluated design ensures that clinical needs, user requirements and regulatory demands are met. Effective design/prototyping cycles reduce net-development time and costs by earlier and less costly iteration/validation prior to production.

The typical steps in creating a medical device prototype are:

  • Requirement analysis: Define the clinical and user requirements thoroughly.
 
  • Conceptual design: Generate initial design ideas in various media.
 
  • Detailed design: Develop detailed 3D CAD models, refining size, materials, function and component interactions.
 
  • Material selection: Choose the most appropriate prototype materials to reflect the expected mass production choices.
 
  • Prototyping: Create physical prototypes using all appropriate methods.
 
  • Testing and evaluation: Evaluate the prototype against functional, safety and usability requirements.
 
  • Iteration: Iterate based on testing results, repeating the entire cycle as necessary.

The role of medical professionals in prototyping:

Medical professionals should be invited to play a role in the entire development process by rendering insights into clinical and practical needs. Front-line expertise enables the device development to address real-world needs and deliver user-friendly functionality for healthcare providers and patients and clinical standards/regulatory requirements.

Considerations relating to prototype appearance and functionality:

  • Aesthetic appeal: At the field/market evaluation stage, prototypes should aim for a real-product appearance. Earlier engineering prototypes do not require this.
 
  • Ergonomics: From the start, aim for comfort and easy use.
 
  • Functionality: Design to perform all required functions reliably, evaluated by  thorough testing of all aspects.
 
  • Form factor: Aim to be appropriately sized for the intended use and environment, balancing compactness and usability.
 
  • Material properties: Select prototype materials that closely replicate mass production, avoiding contamination of the design by inappropriate material failures.
 
  • Compliance: Ensure the design process in its entirety adheres to applicable standards and guidelines.

Impact of Medical Device Prototyping

Medical device prototyping is a key driver of success in the healthcare sector, equipping for rapid innovation and ensuring the eventual delivery of effective, safe and user-friendly products. Prototyping enables the testing and refinement of concepts, identification of issues and validation of functionality before production.

Prototyping greatly impacts a product’s market acceptance and commercial success by accelerating/perfecting the development outcome and reducing time-to-market. Early testing and feedback of prototypes identifies and addresses design flaws, ensuring that the mass produced product accords with market demands and regulatory requirements. This delivers more impactful product launches and better market acceptance and attracts investment by demonstrating the product viability.

Effective prototyping can increase the apparent development time and costs, by adding stages/actions early on. Although the initial investment in prototyping is typically high, it ultimately saves time and money by preventing late-discovered errors. Early identification and iterative improvements streamline the design process, which in turn alleviates the risk of surprise delays and difficulties in mass production and regulatory approval.

Prototyping has a pronounced impact on the product outcome and its ease of transfer to production and the market. Devices that are thoroughly tested and refined early typically result in higher-quality, more reliable and more manufacturable products. Prototyping allows for early and aggressive iteration, which leads to products that better meet user and market needs. Well-executed prototyping also builds confidence among stakeholders and investors.

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Conclusion

Medical device prototyping is absolutely central to developing effective, safe, and user-friendly products. It allows for early and thorough testing and validation, showing that designs meet clinical needs and regulatory standards. It accelerates development and reduces time-to-market while minimizing costs by identifying and iterating design issues early. 

Prototype-level collaboration with both medical experts and end patients delivers products that are practical and user-centric. This enhances the likelihood of successful product experiences/adoption by improving quality and reliability.

Future trends in medical device prototyping include the rapidly expanding capabilities of 3D printing, machine-learning ML/AI driven design and assessment and virtual reality user testing. The increasing spectrum of prototyping methods available are enabling highly detailed and functional prototypes, while ML/AI can optimize design and testing processes. 

There is a growing emphasis on biocompatible and sustainable materials, as well as more sophisticated simulation tools to predict device performance. These advancements shall serve to streamline development, improve product quality, and reduce costs.

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Jon
Jon is a dynamic and accomplished professional with a rich and diverse background. He is an engineer, scientist, team leader, and writer with expertise in several fields. His educational background includes degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Smart Materials. With a career spanning over 30 years, Jon has worked in various sectors such as robotics, audio technology, marine instruments, machine tools, advanced sensors, and medical devices. His professional journey also includes experiences in oil and gas exploration and a stint as a high school teacher. Jon is actively involved in the growth of technology businesses and currently leads a family investment office. In addition to his business pursuits, he is a writer who shares his knowledge on engineering topics. Balancing his professional achievements, Jon is also a dedicated father to a young child. His story is a remarkable blend of passion, versatility, and a constant pursuit of new challenges.

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