Our Medical Device Design Services & Product Development Process

At the end of verification and validation, a medical product is ready for regulatory submission or marketing, depending on the product’s regulatory classification. The manufacturing transfer phase typically follows, ensuring that high quality products can be made at sufficient product volumes. Who do medtech innovators need to know about critical elements in the final phase of the design and development process?

Read more here.

All types of innovators need to carefully protect their intellectual property (IP) from those who may infringe on their ideas and products, and themselves from inadvertently infringing on others’. Medtech innovation is no exception and the landscape is rife with pitfalls.

Smith, Gambrell and Russell’s Matthew Warenzak shares his insights on patent landscape reviews, patents and freedom to operate in the following Q&A.

Read more here.

A significant number of innovative medical technologies fall into FDA’s Class II classification, the vast majority of which require an FDA 510(k) submission. What exactly is a 510(k)? What types of products fall into the Class II, 510(k) category?

Grace Powers, principal consultant with Powers Regulatory Consulting, has 20 years of industry experience in medical devices including research and development. GCMI leans on Grace’s regulatory expertise frequently and she graciously shared her insights on the FDA 510(k) clearance requirements in one of our recent blog posts. Read more here.

At the completion of the design phase, a product will have well-defined design inputs, plus fully described design features and manufacturing methods. Design verification and validation then takes this design output (product) and ensures that it meets all engineering requirements and user needs, respectively.

Have you made the right product? Have you made the product right? Read more about GCMI’s approach to medical device design verification and validation.

Medtech innovation is an exciting, yet risky enterprise. The vast majority of venture capital and strategic investors now want to see early investment in de-risking medical innovations. There is simply too much potential for failure in the pathway to commercialization, plus financial risk related to market forces and competitive products.

Too many medtech development projects are unsuccessful because innovators discover major roadblocks too late in the process. Here are some of the top ways to give your medtech innovation a better chance for successful commercialization.

Medtech innovation is an exciting, yet risky enterprise. The vast majority of venture capital and strategic investors now want to see early investment in de-risking medical innovations. There is simply too much potential for failure in the pathway to commercialization, plus financial risk related to market forces and competitive products.

Too many medtech development projects are unsuccessful because innovators discover major roadblocks too late in the process. Here are some of the top ways to give your medtech innovation a better chance for successful commercialization.

We have completed another revision of our design files for those wishing to produce face shields for healthcare providers

• There are 2 design options
• Contact GCMI if you are interested in manufacturing, assembling, or kitting and packaging components
• We are seeking manufacturers with quality system certifications

Click here to learn more and access the updated design files.

Prototyping is an exciting and important part of the medical product innovation process. Prototypes can give you something tangible to touch and feel – a physical representation of your ideas coming to life.

Because prototyping is such a fun and exciting part of the development lifecycle, it is very easy to burn time and money unnecessarily.

We offer some of the top items to consider when deciding if a prototype is needed.

Earlier today Medical Design & Outsourcing published the following from the FDA regarding 3D printed equipment intended to supplement PPE needs created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Read.

It’s crucial to maintain a capital efficient, yet flexible, process for medical device design services and product development process in order to have the greatest likelihood of arriving at your intended destination in the least amount of time.

Designing for manufacturability is a critical task. The effort to develop a component manufacturing process and an assembly process is just as critical. Making these two paths overlap as much as possible allows a development team time to improve on manufacturing methods prior to any pilot builds.

From our colleagues at Greenlight Guru:

“The goal for most creators of new medical devices is to be able to get them to market as quickly as possible, right? So, what commonly puts roadblocks in the way?

Compliance issues. What are the common issues and what happens with these non-compliances?”

Greenlight Guru founder and VP of QA/QR shares his insights. We thank Greenlight Guru for including GCMI on its “Ulimate List of Medical Device Incubators and Accelerators”.

IEEE 11073-20701™-2018 defines an architecture that binds the participant and communication model to the Web services data transport model defined in previous IEEE 11073™ standards.

PISCATAWAY, NJ, 14 Feb. 2019 – IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA), today announced the publishing and availability of IEEE 11073-20701-2018 – IEEE Approved Draft Standard for Service-Oriented Medical Device Exchange Architecture & Protocol Binding.

Read more.

At the completion of project planning, innovators have determined what work is required to take the technology from prototype to product. The Design and Development phase is all about the meat of the design work: digging in to complete the design tasks, and ensuring that the device is ready for manufacturing and customer use.

Read more about elements and goals of Phase 2 in our process: Design and Development.

Following closely on the heels of GCMI’s work with Georgia Tech and others to design, produce and deliver hundreds of thousands of PPE face shields to frontline health workers, Georgia Tech and GCMI have combined their resources to help solve another critical shortage in healthcare: hand sanitizer.

“Georgia Tech is about the power to convene. Companies and stakeholders are eager to come to the table here to make things happen,” said Dr. George White, Interim Vice President of Georgia Tech’s Office of Industry Collaboration.

Read more.

Project planning, also referred to as “Phase 1” at GCMI, follows directly after the feasibility phase, “Phase Zero.”  Phase 1 is the beginning of the formal product development process that complies with medical device regulatory requirements and with business strategy. This phase is all about determining the resources, the timing, and the work that’s required for product success.

Read more about our planning process: where it fits with product development and why it’s important.

In mid-March 2020, the shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare providers responding to the COVID-19 outbreak had become a national emergency. By March 13 Christopher Saldana, Ph.D., associate professor of manufacturing at Georgia Tech and his mechanical engineering students and colleagues were already working on challenges and solutions for desperately needed protective personal equipment (PPE) for frontline healthcare workers.

Read more about how this collaboration produced and delivered more than 250,000 PPE face shields by April 7.

From the Delta News Hub: April 2, 2020: Delta Flight Products, the airline’s wholly owned subsidiary, is collaborating with Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), a non-profit affiliate of the Georgia Institute of Technology, to manufacture face shields to protect hospital workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using materials and designs provided by GCMI, Delta Flight Products is leveraging its best-in-class manufacturing facilities to quickly deliver an initial order of 2,000 shields to aid workers in New York by Friday, and an additional 4,000 for Atlanta-area hospitals in the following days.

Read more from the Delta News Hub.

When an innovator has identified a medical problem, taking an efficient approach to minimize risk and identify the viability of potential solutions is key. Our Phase Zero focuses on evaluating critical product elements early, minimizing risk, cost and effort.

Key questions:

• What is the clinical need or problem to be solved?
• How will the product’s critical features address clinical need?
• What is the product’s regulatory pathway?
• Can the innovator’s intellectual property be protected?
• Is there a market for the product?
• Who are the competitors?

Answering these questions validates the project direction and anticipates your resource requirements, timeline and team needs. What, then, should medical technology innovators with a ‘napkin sketch’ or research idea expect to get out of GCMI’s Phase Zero service offering?

GCMI, in partnership with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Pediatric Technology Center, has completed our first design files for those wishing to prototype Face Shields for healthcare providers, the first in what we hope will be a series of designs for badly needed PPE items.

“GCMI is unique in that we were able to choose the services that we needed precisely at the time we needed them. The way GCMI engages with their customers is unlike any other firm.” – Lou Malice, nFant CEO

“We would be quite naive about what’s next if not for GCMI. It’s a bootcamp on medical technology commercialization for academic researchers.” – Darren Roblyer, Ph.D., Boston University