The medical device design services and product development team at GCMI facilitates medical product development through all phases – from initial concept generation through transfer to production manufacturing. We guide and execute along a strategic pathway, focusing on both product excellence and regulatory compliance. Our team works with a variety of innovators: individual physicians, researchers and engineers, start-up companies and publicly traded industry leaders.
Medical Device Innovation: A one-on-one with ATDC Lead Entrepreneur in Residence Frank Tighe and GCMI CEO Tiffany Wilson
Tiffany Wilson, GCMI CEO, and Frank Tighe, Lead Entrepreneur in Residence at ATDC, discussed the medical product development process for early stage innovators. Learn from their experiences by watching.
We call this “Phase 0.” During these early stages, we help guide products to the most efficient and effective pathway by using evidence-based decisions for product development.
We have a staff that brings engineering skills, close attention to detail and a commitment to the development process. They have the insights to lead you down a more cost-efficient pathway to regulatory submission, manufacturing and commercialization.
Our staff includes a Medical Affairs Liaison who provides and gathers initial voice of customer inputs at the earliest stages of a project, and adds guidance and perspective throughout the later stages.
Your success is our goal, so we treat your projects like our own. Our goal is to move through the development process in the right way. We guide our projects along a particular path because we know the risks.
Our team is filled with biomedical and mechanical engineering talent, including professionals with biomedical and/or mechanical engineering degrees. We are well versed in the tools and methods to make a medical product.
When it comes to medtech innovation, our client’s success is always our top priority. We help find the right people for the task at any point on the commercialization pathway.
GCMI follows a structured, phase-gated process that allows for a disciplined, capital-efficient medical device design and product development approach that still leaves room for flexibility.
Our colleagues at Southeast Life Sciences are now accepting applications for Pitchrounds at AdvanSE 2022.
They’re seeking the southeast’s most promising life science innovators across multiple life science categories including biopharma, medtech, diagnostic, digital health and agriculture biotechnology technologies.
GCMI Director of Product Development Mike Fisher, joined Scott Hollister, Georgia Tech Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering Professor and Patsy and Alan Dorris Chair in Pediatric Technology, and Meredith Capasse, Human Protections Program and Research Regulatory Affairs for Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to walk as through the required steps and, more importantly, why they’re required for academic researchers and innovators with novel medtech ideas or technologies.
Where does preclinical testing enter the design and development phase of new medical technologies and devices? GCMI Design and Development Director Mike Fisher and Preclinical Program Director Evan Goldberg share deep dive insights.
“At the end of the day, some testing requirements in the design and development phase simply cannot be done ‘on the bench,’ Evan says. “In design input requirements and confirmation activities within the design and development phase, only cadaveric or small scale in-vivo testing can determine if a device provides appropriate grip or traction for the user, or if it works as intended in a beating heart or vessels with blood flow. Read on.
How can medtech, life science and biopharma innovators know their product is ready for preclinical testing? GCMI Design and Development Director Mike Fisher and Preclinical Program Director Evan Goldberg joined Renovo Biomedical’s Anna Fallon on January 14, 2021 to answer that question.
“How quickly can you get your feasibility study to look like your GLP study? When you’re doing any level of pre-GLP preclinical studies, you have to maximize the value of the information you are getting. You never want to go into verification and validation testing without knowing the answer to your questions.” Access the recording here.
Project planning is the beginning of formal product development process, wherein the identified team enters a design control process that complies with medical device regulatory requirements (in the United States, per the FDA) and business strategy. This phase is all about determining the resources, the timing, and the work that’s required for product success.
Where does preclinical work find its way into project planning for new medical technologies? What are the top considerations for preclinical work in this early development stage? GCMI Preclinical Program Director Evan Goldberg shares his insights in this Q&A.
Design validation ensures that you have made the “right” product – according to the customer’s needs. Design verification ensures that the team has made the product “right” – according to regulatory and engineering requirements.
How does verification and validation in the design and development process “translate” to preclinical?
Find the insights from GCMI / T3 Labs Preclinical Program Director Evan Goldberg tells us in this Q&A. Read more.
Watch, listen and learn from the 2020 Southeast Life Sciences AdvanSE event:
Click here to access the post and recording.
Jackson Medical used GCMI’s “Phase Zero” to streamline their pathway from concept to commercialization for their novel medical device that reduces the potential for never events like burns and fires in operating rooms.
Watch and listen to Professor James Rains’ and Kamil Makhneija’s insights as shared with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center Chief Engineer Leanne West.
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.
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
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.
Chief Executive Officer, Sherry Farrugia, and Director for Product Development Mike Fisher, were among those recently awarded the Presidents’ Award of Distinction for Team Science from the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (Georgia CTSA).
This device has the opportunity to improve patient safety for those receiving IV therapy, especially children.
In 2014, a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta nurse, Lynn Pogue, approached an engineer, Leanne West from Georgia Tech, to discuss the burden of IV monitoring. This is when Sherry Farrugia, the current Chief Executive Officer of GCMI, stepped in to help assemble the team that would begin the investigation into a new device capable of mitigating IV ‘infiltration’ or ‘leakage’ in pediatric patients.
In 2018, GCMI chronicled one Georgia Tech Capstone team’s effort to end complications from epidural misplacement. Fast forward more than three years and the promising product dubbed Neuraline has evolved to become a new medtech startup: Ethos Medical. The Ethos team leveraged the supporting elements and mentors within the Georgia Tech CREATE-X program—with assistance from GCMI and T3 Labs—to advance development of its needle guidance system.
“Don’t build first, listen,” Zea advises others with innovative ideas for new medical technologies. “This can be inherently difficult for engineers, designers and builders. But it’s immensely important. You’ll get it wrong if you don’t listen [closely to the customers’ or users’ needs first].”
“If we worked with another design and development firm, we wouldn’t have had the flexibility to do what we needed to do in the time frame we set. 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.” Read on to learn more about our capital efficient, phase-gated medtech development process.
As a non-profit affiliate of Georgia Tech, GCMI fills a specific role or roles for a period of time, allowing you to complete the work with no strings attached. Our team is here to help you design the right product, primed for manufacturing, then help you find the best way to get it to market – whether or not that means sticking with GCMI. Read on.
Georgia Bio, the state’s life science trade association, named GCMI, the Saldana Research Group and Georgia Tech 2021 Golden Helix Innovation Award recipients for our fast-response PPE program. The Innovation Award recognizes the department, institution, company or individuals who are forging new ground by thinking outside traditional paradigms to create some unique technology.
Read more about the project and its impact.
Innovative medical technologies start with a great idea, novel science and an identified unmet clinical need. The process by which these technologies enter clinical care is as complicated as the science behind it. On October 7th, Georgia Tech Associate Professor of Engineering Christopher Saldana and the team at GCMI shared the impetus, idea, regulatory requirements and processes that moved Chris’ team’s engineering idea out of his lab and into the hands of frontline healthcare professionals all in the midst of a pandemic.
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.
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:
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
Investigational Device Exemptions are required by the U.S. FDA for devices or technologies that require clinical use before regulatory approval…
Congratulations are in order! GCMI Chief Executive Officer, Sherry Farrugia, and Director for Product Development Mike Fisher, were among those…
Our colleagues at Southeast Life Sciences are now accepting applications for Pitchrounds at AdvanSE 2022. They’re seeking the southeast’s…
Learn from our experience to streamline your regulatory pathway and set your new medical device or technology up for commercialization…
New medical technologies or devices cannot enter stages of research or clinical trials in humans without certain authorizations required by…
In 2014, a Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta nurse, Lynn Pogue, approached an engineer, Leanne West from Georgia Tech, to discuss…
According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion. That fails…
A team of mechanical, electrical and computing engineers, supported by the Director of Cardiac Intensive Care for Children’s Healthcare of…
How we walk is a key indicator of any injury, recovery pathway and overall health. Clinicians’ analysis for assessment of…
Once a new medical technology or device is ready to go from prototype to product, following a defined process and…
A medtech or life science project’s success is dependent on the careful consideration of several intersecting components: technological, clinical, commercial…
When it comes to medtech innovation, our client’s success is always our top priority. We help find the right people…
The Fluid Fighters Capstone team needed to test their prototype for draining rates and tissue adherence or occlusion avoidance. GCMI’s…
Yoel Alperin, Parth Gami, Sindhu Kannappan and Kelly Qiu comprise the Georgia Tech Spring 2021 Capstone Design Team ScolAlign. Their…
GCMI is now pleased to offer you a deep-dive, behind-the-scenes look at what we do and how we do it…
Lateral access has become the preferred, minimally invasive method for lumbar spinal surgery. Entering the torso from the side significantly…
According to Cleveland Clinic, “Achalasia develops in about 1 in every 100,000 people in the U.S. each year. It is…
Georgia Bio, the state’s life science trade association, named GCMI, the Saldana Research Group and Georgia Tech 2021 Golden Helix…
In the context of GCMI’s phase-gated product development, the “Design and Development” phase (also called “Phase 2” at GCMI) typically…
There are approximately 292,000 cases of in-hospital cardiac arrest every year for which the survival rate is less than 24…
Where does preclinical work find its way into project planning for new medical technologies? What are the top considerations for…
Georgia Tech recently completed its Fall 2020 (virtual) Capstone Design Expo. From the project’s website, “The Capstone Design Expo showcases…
Last month, Georgia Tech named Raghupathy “Siva” Sivakumar inaugural Interim Chief Commercialization Officer. From Georgia Tech Research Horizons: “Sivakumar…
In section 21 CFR 820.3 of the federal code, FDA defines design verification as “the process of confirmation by examination…
Preclinical evaluations are often the best way to assess a medical product’s performance, and regulatory bodies often require preclinical data…
Watch, listen and learn. Our 2020 AdvanSE session can help you know, and fix, the ways medtech innovators burn cash…
Medtech and life science innovation is a complex, costly endeavor. How do you know you are on the right regulatory…
Innovative medical technologies start with a great idea, novel science and an identified unmet clinical need. The process by which…
From our colleagues at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center – “We knew that we had an innovative…
Overheating lighting instruments coupled with human error are a leading cause of intraoperative fires and patient burns. The healthcare system…
At the end of verification and validation, a medical product is ready for regulatory submission or marketing, depending on the…
All types of innovators need to carefully protect their intellectual property (IP) from those who may infringe on their ideas…
The vast majority of novel ideas from academia never make it into clinical use. Together we can change that. Innovative…
A significant number of innovative medical technologies fall into FDA’s Class II classification, the vast majority of which require an…
Medical product design verification and validation activities (called “Phase 3” and “Phase 4” at GCMI) typically come after a design…
In the context of GCMI’s phase-gated product development process the “Design and Development” phase (also called “Phase 2” at GCMI)…
GCMI helps medtech innovators, including physicians, academic researchers and professors, startups and large strategic companies, bring their products to market.…
Following closely on the heels of GCMI’s work with Georgia Tech and others to design, produce and deliver hundreds of…
Where does Medtech Project Planning fit in with Product Development and why is it important? Let’s review the basic steps…
Tiffany Wilson, CEO of The Global Center for Medical Innovation (GCMI), and Frank Tighe, Lead Entrepreneur in Residence at The…
Friends and colleagues, we hope you will enjoy this inspiring story of innovation and collaboration that is helping keep our…
The design and development process can make or break a medical device’s commercial potential. It is dependent on careful consideration…
Medtech innovation is an exciting, yet risky enterprise. The vast majority of venture capital and strategic investors now want to…
As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to force all of us to find safe paths forward, GCMI continues to remain…
In mid-March 2020, the shortage of personal protective equipment for healthcare providers responding to the COVID-19 outbreak had become a…
Aflac Incorporated, a leader in supplemental insurance at U.S. worksites, today announced it has contributed $5 million to two organizations that are…
In one week, a team of students in a joint biotech medical lab with Georgia Tech and Emory students started…
From the Delta News Hub: April 2, 2020: Delta Flight Products, the airline’s wholly owned subsidiary, is collaborating with Global…
“In response to the unprecedented challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, ExxonMobil is applying its deep knowledge and experience with polymer-based…
To our GCMI clients, experts, and friends – From the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, my team and I have…
Earlier today Medical Design & Outsourcing published the following from the FDA regarding 3D printed equipment intended to supplement PPE…
Research Collaboration to Allow Manufacturers to 3D Print Thousands of Face Shields in the Coming Weeks Atlanta, GA –…
Image credit: GT Research Horizons GCMI, in partnership with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Georgia Tech Pediatric Technology…
We are pleased to partner with Dr. Joanna Newton, along with a skilled and motivated team at Georgia Tech and…
Fast track answers to critical questions that de-risk medtech innovations When an innovator has identified a medical problem, taking…
Prototyping is an exciting and important part of the medical product innovation process. Prototypes can give you something tangible to…
Photo courtesy of http://studyclerk.com/ For most medical device innovators, prototyping is one of the most exciting times in product development.…
GCMI’s Sarah Cohen and Mike Fisher provided substantial insights for Assembly Magazine’s Austin Weber in a recent article, “Best Practices…
As the year comes to a close and many of us look forward to a holiday respite, I find myself…
GCMI’s foremost goal as an affiliate of the Georgia Institute of Technology is to partner with Georgia Tech faculty and…
At GCMI, medtech and medical device innovation are at the core of our efforts including our work within our industry…
GCMI’s 2018 year end review and 2019 look ahead Thanks to our staff, customers, sponsors and fellow industry, academic…
So you have an idea for a new medical device. Now what? Coming up with a concept for a new…
In GCMI’s experience, the decision to commit to a design and development plan for a new medical product should not…
In medical product development, correctly identifying and committing to your FDA approval process or pathway can make or break many…
Michael Fisher, Director of Product Development for GCMI, shares his insights from the IEEE-NIH Healthcare Innovations and Point of Care…
Medical technology innovators learn quickly that there is little, if any, flexibility in the FDA approval process. NFANT Labs knew…
“Children aren’t little adults, yet we expect our physicians to retrofit adult devices to fit a pediatric patient,” says Sherry…
GCMI’s Director of Product Development, Mike Fisher, recently spoke about the ins and outs of successful medical device development as…
Connect with GCMI and T3 Labs at GSACS 2017! The Georgia Society of the American College of Surgeons (GSACS)…
Who better to address unmet clinical needs and life-changing improvements to medical devices of all types than clinicians themselves? Piedmont…
The 2017 edition of the Southeastern Medical Device Association (SEMDA) annual conference has come and gone, and this year was…
Micro C raises additional $700K in seed round to complete several planned initiatives and bring their novel medical device…
GCMI and T3 Labs CEO Tiffany Wilson shares insights with Assembly Magazine on what it takes to bring a medical…
Having a facility like T3 to test novel and breakthrough applications’ ability to save lives is crucial for battling diseases…
GCMI and T3 Labs CEO Tiffany Wilson shares medtech development pathway insights in Medical Product Outsourcing. Bringing a new…
The Masters of Biomedical Innovation and Development program (BioID program) is a collaborative academic experience in Biomedical technology and a…
Dr. Steven Goudy, MD, is an associate professor and Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology for the Emory School of Medicine. He…
Innovators seeking to enter the world of medtech face a daunting path from concept to commercialization. Design, engineering, prototyping and…
Now more than ever, physician innovators are entering into a highly regulated and cost constrained environment. “This industry is not…
Read how GCMI and T3 worked together to help John Erbey at Strataca develop a new way to manage Acute…
At T3 Labs, we take great pride in our scientific acumen. Afterall, the organization was conceived and designed by translational…
Preclinical medical device testing: how do you know you are ready and how do you make the most efficient investment…