Advancements in Today's Electronic Medical Device Industry

The reach of electronics innovation in today’s medical device industry is continually evolving. Advancements in mobile technologies, flexible circuits, microelectronics, and embedded systems have played a major role in the emergence of novel medical devices and healthcare solutions. So what are the most significant advancements in today’s medical device industry?

Complex Implantable Electromechanical Devices

Until very recently, it used to be that the most complex implantable devices were pacemakers. With today’s electronics advancements, we’ve moved to even more complex, life-saving solutions. 

One example is LVAD or Left Ventricular Assist Device pumps. An LVAD is a battery-powered mechanical pump, which helps the heart pump blood, for patients with end-stage heart failure. Thanks to precision electromechanical advancements. These devices are nowadays portable and usable for many years. The device’s purpose is to provide patients a good quality of life for years, while waiting for a donor heart to become available. 

Another example is a TRVD (Transcatheter Renal Venous Decongestion). TRVD consists of an axial flow pump and two sealing elements, used post-surgically to selectively reduce pressure in the renal veins and aid kidney function. Such cutting edge solutions have just recently become available with the advent of today’s medical electronics advancements.

Mobile Health & Smart Devices

Connectivity and mobile technologies have majorly contributed to the rise of specialized software. This allows for patient operated devices that enable remote and economically efficient delivery of a range of health care services. Smartphones, in particular, have been proven instrumental in developing this necessary connectivity ecosystem. They provide a necessary vehicle for delivering and distributing many of today’s modern advancements. 

Examples of such technologies and devices include wearables, smart health apps, heart rate, and other vital signs monitoring devices. Once these are coupled with medical data information platforms and AI, there are a slew of scenarios in which they can be used extensively in mobile and preventive healthcare solutions.

Home Biometrics Devices

Home biometrics devices are usually part of broader remote healthcare solutions. These solutions enable patients to actively contribute to the treatment of their condition by self-monitoring their own vital signs and biometrics. Apart from the healthcare benefits, these devices also provide an economically sustainable solution in today’s growing elderly population. Not to mention its impact on the patient’s quality of life.

One example of such home-based healthcare, are devices that allow the patient to conduct self medical examination while communicating with a remotely situated physician. Devices equipped with cameras, lights, and sensors allow for home-based examination of a patient’s throat, ears, skin, lungs, heart, and body temperature, among others. This biometric information is communicated to a physician. A new reality is created allowing for remote, immediate, and cost-efficient diagnosis of a variety of common health conditions as well as routine checkup and post-surgery patient monitoring.

Another example of modern patient operated medical devices that utilize biometrics, are used in home-based pregnancy monitoring. Using state of the art electronics enables the creation of home-based, patient operated fetal monitoring devices. These can be used by expecting parents to observe the vital signs of a fetus still in utero, such as fetal heart rate and fetal movement detection. Based on Doppler ultrasound technology. These home operated medical devices provide capabilities unheard of for regular home users. Such devices are prime examples of how technological advancements in electronics have the potential to challenge the paradigm of many fields of medicine.

Robotic Surgical Systems

Robotic surgical systems are classified as type II medical devices and made possible through recent electronic advancements. Their purpose is to facilitate minimally invasive surgical procedures while being remotely controlled by a surgeon. They provide a solution for places without direct access to health services, reliable transportation, or lack of available health providers.

Manufacturing Today’s Medical Devices

Today’s advancements in the electronic medical device industry involve two main opportunities: the development of new, and making expensive medical devices more affordable. In both these tasks, companies need an experienced medical device manufacturing partner with a modern approach. Contact Quasar to discover how to get the one-stop-shop help you really need in any stage of your medical device development, from design ideation to microelectronics mass manufacturing.