Hey med developers, I was thinking about all the work that goes into medical devices and how much resistance there can be to design thinking so much of the time. It has become extremely popular in consumer device design, but not so quickly accepted with medical devices.

I started asking myself why, and came up with what I think are the top 5 reasons it is important for us to use in med device. For the sake of brevity, I will just list them without much explanation:

1. THE USER CENTRIC NATURE OF DESIGN. This can be the key to beating the competition.

2. VERIFICATION TESTING. Early design research informs more formative work, freeing people up to be more creative.

3. CROSS FUNCTIONAL COORDINATION. This can help reduce delays from missed expectations.

4. DESIGN FOR MANUFACTURING. Done early with design thinking makes engineering down the road easier, not harder.

5. POSITIVELY IMPACTING LIVES. The contribution to the improvement of people who need help is immeasurable.

So what are YOU waiting for? The cost to create great innovative devices has been optimized, and the tools to make it happen have never been more accessible and available.

I’d love to know – does your company use design thinking yet? Why or why not? Do you think design thinking really works to create acceptability for medical devices? Why or why not?

FYI, the picture I used at the top of this post is from a device we created for a Minneapolis-based medical device company, NxThera. (video link below) If you have a picture or video of a project of your own, or a link to one you like, please share in the comments! Would love to see other examples!

Unusual surgical device video: http://www.nxthera.com/rezum/the-rezum-system/

source: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2070969/2070969-6148947858474221570