Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

6 huge things you could have learned at MD&M West

February 8, 2017 By Heather Thompson

MD&M West medtech

[Original image courtesy of UBM]

A greater willingness to embrace failure and innovate—and a “yuge” elephant in the room named Donald—those are some of the major themes this week as 20,000 medical device engineers and executives meet in Anaheim, Calif., for the annual MD&M West conference and expo.

Here are six things one could hear echoed throughout the expo floor and conference rooms of the Anaheim Convention Center:

1. Trump who?

No one really wanted to talk about President Donald Trump, still in his first 100 days of office. Bosch Rexroth’s Kevin Gingerich said it best, noting that medtech is all about the long view: “Our corporate citizenship and our company mission is not going to change no matter who is in a political office.”

A number of people at MD&M West sounded the same theme—that political theater doesn’t matter if companies are creating good products and responding to market needs (either local or global).

2. Solving a problem through failure

Jamie Hyneman Mythbusters MD&M West

Jamie Hyneman, formerly of Mythbusters, has moved into the world of engineering and shared his thoughts on design, testing, and failure.

On the TV show Mythbusters, the phrase “failure is always an option,” became a catch phrase. Former show host, Jaime Hyneman spoke in the keynote address and tackled this philosophy. “Failure is wonderful,” he said. “You have to cherish what happened. This is not the time to bemoan—it is the time to dig in.” He does admit that in product development, it can be hard to see that silver lining, but, “within that failure is a newer and better product that you are just about to discover.”

3. Tightening budgets

The need to do more with less is one of the biggest challenges, says Bosch Rexroth’s Gingerich. “We’ve had to come up with creative responses to smaller budgets.”

4. The myth of medtech slowness

The old adage is that medtech as an industry is slow to innovate. That may have been true at one time, but it is certainly not true these days, says Tony Samurkas of Trinseo, which creates polymer housing for medical technology, among other products. (The company also has experience in the consumer products industry.) “The speed of response and the demand for color matching and ‘right the 1st time’ principles is equal to the consumer electronics industry.”

5. Manufacturing transparency

Transparency is playing a larger role in working with contract manufacturing, notes Austin Taliaferro of Coastal Life Technologies (San Antonio, Texas). “OEMs want to be able to see the manufacturing process in their own system,” Taliaferro said. That has driven Coastal Life to modernize its ERP systems to meet those needs.

6. Sterilization cannot be an afterthought

Some designers don’t think about sterilization until it is too late to change things, says Jennifer Principe of Sterigenics. Sterigenics is working hard to change that by offering design consulting services. Sterigenic’s recent acquisition last year of Nelson Labs, brings a slew of respected microbiological and analytical testing and consultancy to Sterigenics’s existing sterilization products powerhouse.

[Want to stay more on top of MDO content? Subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter.]

Related Articles Read More >

An illustration showing a wireless, chipless skin sensor
MIT engineers fabricate chip-free, wireless e-skin
An Allina Health sign outside United Hospital in St. Paul
Owens & Minor and Allina Health partner on supply chain resiliency
A chronic pain illustration showing sound and electrical stimulation
Chronic pain researchers say sound and electrical stimulation has treatment potential
A portrait of Dr. Laura Mauri at Medtronic
What Laura Mauri learned from a ‘firestorm’ in her first months at Medtronic

DeviceTalks Weekly.

August 12, 2022
DTW – Medtronic’s Mauri brings years of patient care to top clinical, regulatory, scientific post
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Medical Design Sourcing
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • Subscribe to Print Magazine
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech