medical Archives | PDD

Tag: medical

Putting medics at the heart of innovation

PDD launches new initiative to put medics at the heart of innovation.

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Jim Roberts, consultant anaesthetist and medical innovator at University College London Hospitals (UCLH), as an independent advisor in healthcare innovation. This initiative seeks to transform how medical technology is developed and used in hospital settings by putting medics at the heart of the process.


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Zephyr Plus Ventilator recognised with the C2I Award for Covid-19 response.

We are delighted to see the Zephyr Plus Ventilator recognised with the C2I award for COVID-19 Response by The Engineer magazine.
Led by Babcock International Group in response to the UK Government’s ventilator challenge in the early days of the pandemic, this was a highly collaborative project where PDD and over 50 partners and suppliers worked together to find the most appropriate solution.


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PDD gains re-certification to the latest standard for medical devices quality assurance

Following our successful transition in June to the latest 2016 revision of ISO13485, we were certified in November for a further 3 years for our client services in research, design, engineering, pre-production manufacture, verification and validation.


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PDD completes its transition to the 2016 version of ISO13485 for Medical Devices.

PDD has completed its planned transition to the latest version of this rigorous international quality assurance standard for medical devices, building on the success of earlier transitions and successful audits to the FDA 21CFR Part 820 in 2015.


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FDA: Outlook on legacy devices

Chris Vincent and I recently attended an AAMI training course held in Dublin on Human Factors for Medical devices. EU manufacturers and consultancies all attended with the hope of having some questions answered by the FDA.


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“Measuring usability”: The siren song of quantitative reasoning

How do you measure usability? How do you really measure the efficiency of interface characteristics and user satisfaction in a way that can feed opportunities to develop and innovate? As a usability consultant, it is not that uncommon to be asked to evaluate usability. Some would even go so far as to say it comes with the territory.


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Innovation trends in Pharma and Medtech

Earlier this week, I attended an event at Imperial College on Innovation in Medtech. The event was well attended by academics and a diverse group of industry representatives from pharma and medical device companies, start-ups, consultancies and investors.


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Why we need better UI in Professional Medical Devices

As a follow on from my previous blog, with more technology being used to treat patients, user interface (UI) design is key to making devices safe and effective. Patients aren’t the only ones who need good UIs however, Health Care Professionals (HCPs) are more reliant than ever on technology to do their job and this is only set to rise. They – more than most – need informative, error proof UIs especially considering errors kill 12,000 patients a year in the UK and no doubt cause complications for many more. Here are a few design recommendations tailored to designing devices with the needs of health care professionals in mind.


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Why we need better UI in patient-used medical devices

It’s no secret that our healthcare bill is increasing. Worldwide, healthcare spending is at a record high, and an expanding and aging population means this shows no sign of slowing down any time soon.


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Human error or use error…Make the switch!

FMEAs (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) are a common tool used in industry by device manufacturers to help members of R&D think of risk mitigation strategies to embed within their process whilst they are in the product development stages. FMEAs traditionally focus on system/component failures that can affect the operation of a device whilst UFMEAs (User Failures Modes and Effects Analysis) are intended to help members of R&D to focus on use-related errors. The term ‘Use Error’ has recently been introduced to replace the commonly used terms ‘Human Error’ and ‘User Error’, after the need to change the term was prompted by a high number of manufacturers commonly attributing errors to the users as opposed to investing in fixing error-prone device design.


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Human Factors: The art of asking a good question

In Human Factors the art of asking a good question that is non-leading yet to the point, simple yet scenario driven, open yet has boundaries to stop people going off on a tangent, whilst trying to get the user to answer as honestly as possible sounds like a breeze doesn’t it? Think again!


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A Doctor’s perspective on learning Human-Centred Design

During my internship with PDD, I participated in the LUMA Institute + PDD’s Human-Centred Design (HCD) for Innovation workshop that the PDD HCD team runs several times a year in London.


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VOKE – Nicotine inhaler licensed by the MHRA

As a designer I have always found the most rewarding products to develop are those that improve the quality of people’s lives: whether it’s medical equipment for new therapies, easier to use pharma devices, protective equipment for industry and defence or safety products for the rugged outdoors. Improving lives for me means delivering better and safer experiences and wellbeing, preferably also in a more efficient or sustainable way. There is a clear value attached to improving the quality of lives of users, so at the same time the endeavor is more likely to be a worthwhile to the producer also. At PDD we call this objective where parties win-win ‘Meaningful Innovation’.


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Can you teach an old brain new tricks?

Heart failure, Stroke, Cancer, Dementia, Malaria, Bird Flu or even Ebola – take your pick from the latest challenges in world health. Each account of these relative pandemics sweeping societies across the globe allude to being your next arch enemy, ‘the one you need to watch out for’. At the time of writing this blog, five of the major newspapers featured health related headlines including ‘Dementia patients cut loose’, ‘500,000 denied cancer drug’, ‘Statins health risk’, and ‘Superbugs will send us to the dark ages’ – it is clear that health is high on the public radar.


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Highlights from Pharmapack Paris 2014

Pharmapack 2014, Europe’s main exhibition for pharma and healthcare packaging and drug delivery, has been another successful event for the PDD medical team. Attended by our well-connected Head of Medical Alun Wilcox and me – Sergio Malorni, we had many meet-ups with our past and current clients where we discussed their latest developments and initiatives. Likewise with our simple and clear message, our stand attracted other pharma reps new to us wanting to know how we can potentially respond to their many product development and usability engineering challenges. Let’s see what develops for us in the coming year. As for the exhibition the appropriate size and quality of suppliers and conference talks made this event well-liked; the show was focused which make it attractive for decision-makers to attend.


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3D-printing our way to the future…

Toys, products prototypes, automotive parts, guns, shoes, medical implants, prosthetics, ceramics, meat, gold… It is starting to sound like we are on our way to be able to 3D print our way to the future. Possibilities are already endless, and as research and technology develop, who knows what can become possible!


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Surgical Innovation – Pioneering doctors and devices

Surgery is a fascinating branch of medicine; rooted in science, yet still very much a craft and (whether we like it or not as a patient) frequently dependent on the skills of improvisation by the surgeon and their team. Surgery has come a long way since its early days but the pace of innovation has anything but slowed down. On the contrary, new technologies are creating new possibilities to improve safety and efficacy of procedures, and cost pressures are creating an imperative to achieve more with less.


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Is safety regulation stopping us from designing easy-to-use medical devices?

Whilst perusing the web to stay abreast of current affairs in the medical device usability world, I came across an interesting topic with regards to the regulated and unregulated components of usability work in the sector. We have on the one hand the regulatory requirement to develop devices that are safe and effective, free from potentially harmful use errors. Whilst on the other hand, we have the desire to create great user and patient experiences through devices that are appealing and easy-to-use. However, the tension between the two components can mean that we, as usability practitioners, get so distracted with regulatory issues that other characteristics of usability become neglected within the device user interface.


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