Browse Topic: Medical equipment and supplies
Smart implants that not only stabilize a fracture but also monitor the healing process from day one — and deliver targeted support when required — are currently being developed at Saarland University by a team of engineers, medical researchers, and computer scientists. The engineering team led by Paul Motzki is contributing shape-memory micro-actuators with integrated sensing capabilities, while Bergita Ganse and her research group provide the medical expertise in fracture healing.
Ultra-miniature sensors are enabling advanced procedures and treatments across a wide range of medical devices, from catheters and neuro interfaces to wearables. But as electromagnetic sensors get smaller, trade-offs begin to emerge — lower sensitivity, less tolerance for environmental influences, and greater susceptibility to interference — underscoring the need for robust testing to ensure accurate, reliable tracking.
Materials innovations are shaping the next generation of medical devices. In this Q&A, Jeremy Schaffer, director of research and development at Fort Wayne Metals, discusses how advances in titanium, nickel-titanium, surface engineering, and smart materials are helping device developers improve performance, miniaturization, durability, and patient outcomes. He also addresses sustainability, scale-up challenges, and the collaborations needed to move promising materials from research into real-world medical use.
Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, and New York’s Columbia University have embedded transistors in a soft, conformable material to create a biocompatible sensor implant that monitors neurological functions through successive phases of a patient’s development.
Researchers at Cornell University, working with collaborators, have created an extremely small neural implant that can sit on a grain of salt. Despite its size, the device can wirelessly transmit brain activity data from a living animal for more than a year.
Using an inexpensive electrode coated with DNA, MIT researchers have designed disposable diagnostics that could be adapted to detect a variety of diseases, including cancer or infectious diseases such as influenza and HIV.
With the increasing demand for underwater and implantable medical electronics, a stable and continuous power supply is essential. However, conventional wireless charging methods (such as electromagnetic induction and radio frequency-based charging) used in smartphones and wireless earphones suffer from short transmission distances, low energy transfer efficiency in biological tissues, and electromagnetic interference. To overcome these limitations, researchers are now considering the use of ultrasound as a new wireless power transfer technology. Ultrasound has the advantage of being human-friendly and less absorbed by tissues, allowing for more reliable energy transfer in implantable and skin-adherent devices. As a result, wireless charging technology utilizing ultrasonic energy is emerging as the next generation of power transfer.
Is there a way to stick hard and soft materials together without any tape, glue, or epoxy? A new study published in ACS Central Science shows that applying a small voltage to certain objects forms chemical bonds that securely link the objects together. Reversing the direction of electron flow easily separates the two materials. This electroadhesion effect could help create biohybrid robots, improve biomedical implants, and enable new battery technologies.
A soft, thread-like implantable bioelectronic device is designed to sense and stimulate tissues with minimal invasiveness. Roughly a quarter of a millimeter in diameter, the NeuroString fiber can incorporate hundreds to thousands of independent electronic channels capable of detecting neurochemicals, monitoring muscle contractions, recording single-neuron activity, or delivering targeted stimulation.
There’s a quiet revolution happening deep in the anatomy that doesn’t start with robotics or AI-assisted navigation, but with something far more fundamental: materials. The push toward miniaturized medical devices, especially in vascular intervention, isn’t just about making things smaller but also making devices that can be efficacious in the small anatomy.
Wearable or implantable devices to monitor biological activities, such as heart rate, are useful, but they are typically made of metals, silicon, plastic, and glass and must be surgically implanted. A research team in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis is developing bioelectronic hydrogels that could one day replace existing devices and have much more flexibility.
Power sources used in devices found in or around biological tissue must be flexible and non-toxic, while still powerful enough to support demanding technologies such as medical devices or soft robotics. To achieve this balance, researchers at Penn State are taking inspiration from electric eels.
Medical device manufacturers are operating in an environment defined by complexity, competition, and increasing expectations for quality. Rising production requirements, persistent labor shortages, and heightened regulatory oversight have transformed automation from a tactical improvement into a strategic necessity.
Supply chain disruptions are no longer abstract problems for economists to debate. For the medical device industry, they are a direct threat that hits engineers, designers, and manufacturers at the core of their operations. These issues are not just about a hospital running out of supplies; they are about a company’s inability to design, produce, and deliver life-saving technology to the market. This article explores how engineering and innovation are becoming the primary tools for building a more resilient and reliable medical device supply chain.
Polymer welding plays a critical role in how medical devices are built, even though the welds themselves are rarely seen by clinicians or patients. Across plastic surgical instruments, filters, catheters, drug-delivery systems, diagnostic cartridges, disposable products, and more, these welded joints must perform reliably to support safety, functionality, and to meet regulatory requirements.
For many years, the medical industry has used additive manufacturing (AM) to develop low-volume parts, such as medical prototypes, bespoke implants, and surgical implants and aids. Global engineering technologies company, Renishaw, has collaborated with medical devices specialist, Permedica, to develop AM processes for the mass production of medical components in the healthcare industry, driving industry innovation.
Scientists used a “smart” shirt equipped with an electrocardiogram to track participants’ heart-rate recovery after exercise and developed a tool for analyzing the data to predict those at higher or lower risk of heart-related ailments.
Cornell researchers and collaborators have developed a neural implant so small that it can rest on a grain of salt, yet it can wirelessly transmit brain activity data in a living animal for more than a year.
Bioelectronics, such as implantable health monitors or devices that stimulate brain cells, are not as soft as the surrounding tissues due to their metal electronic circuits. A team of scientists has developed a soft polymer hydrogel that can conduct electricity as well as metal can. As the material is both flexible and soft, it is more compatible with sensitive tissues. This finding has the potential for a large number of applications, for example, in biocompatible sensors and in wound healing.
Researchers combined mussel adhesive protein with decellularized extracellular matrix (dECM) to develop a composite hemostatic sponge that offers both strong tissue adhesion and biocompatible biodegradability.
Researchers have pioneered a 3D printing method that grows metals and ceramics inside a water-based gel, resulting in exceptionally dense, yet intricate constructions for next-generation biomedical technologies.
A low-cost, portable biosensor can quickly identify a protein whose altered levels are associated with psychiatric disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. When it becomes commercially available in the future, it may contribute to early detection, which is essential for treating and monitoring patients’ clinical conditions.
As advanced technologies reshape the medical device landscape, the demands placed on contract manufacturers are evolving. Today’s partners are expected to do more than deliver components — they must anticipate disruptions, adapt quickly, and bring a level of technical and strategic depth that supports faster development without compromising quality.
In this Q&A, Audrey Turley, director of lab operations – biosafety at Nelson Laboratories, spoke with Medical Design Briefs about the critical importance of monitoring and managing material changes in medical devices. Even seemingly minor shifts — such as switching suppliers or altering processing steps — can introduce unknown additives or variations that impact biocompatibility and, ultimately, patient safety. Turley discusses how manufacturers can effectively document and justify changes, maintain regulatory compliance, and strengthen supplier relationships to ensure ongoing device safety. She also shares insights into trends shaping post-pandemic supply-chain strategies and the growing emphasis on proactive risk assessment and communication across the product lifecycle.
In today’s medical equipment market, reliability is not a luxury — it is a necessity. Every adjustment, every movement, and every interaction with the equipment must be performed flawlessly to ensure patient safety, caregiver efficiency, and long-term service life. Behind this design and precision are highly engineered motion control components, such as gas springs, electric linear actuators, and dampers, that ensure safe, ergonomic operation of medical equipment across a wide range of healthcare applications.
For any supplier in the medical device manufacturing industry, sustainable success requires an ability and a willingness to bring customers’ ideas to reality. There are often innovative, potentially life-saving projects that are delayed or even abandoned due to limitations on the manufacturing end. However, many specifications that seem impossible to meet can be achieved with persistence, collaboration, and dedication to customers’ ideas.
The global electronics supply chain has always run in cycles — tight supply followed by sudden gluts — but in recent years, the pace and scale of disruption have accelerated. From semiconductor shortages to shifting trade policies and pandemic-driven bottlenecks, OEMs across every sector have been forced to rethink how they source and secure critical components.
Bruno Boutantin, Extrude Hone
RMIT University Melbourne, Australia
Soft robots, medical devices and implants, and next-generation drug delivery methods could soon be guided with magnetism — thanks to a metal-free magnetic gel developed by researchers at the University of Michigan and the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany.
Rice University Houston, TX
A research team at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences has developed a 3D-printed implant to deliver electrical stimulation to injured areas of the spinal cord offering a potential new route to repair nerve damage. Details of the 3D-printed implant and how it performs in lab experiments have been published in the journal Advanced Science.
A research team led by Prof. Jinho Chang from the department of electrical engineering and computer science at DGIST has developed an ultrasound-based wireless charging technology capable of rapidly and efficiently charging the batteries of implantable medical devices. The technology has achieved world-class energy efficiency, fully charging a commercial battery within two hours, even inside the human body.
In today’s medtech landscape, innovation isn’t just about what a device does — it’s about how reliably and cost-effectively it gets to market. As devices grow smaller, smarter, and more user-centered, materials like liquid silicone rubber (LSR) play a bigger role in enabling performance, comfort, and compliance. From implantables to connected wearables, LSR is helping engineers meet growing design and usability demands. As demand for the material grows, so do the pressures on supply chains, including launch timelines, increased regulatory scrutiny, and rising technical complexity.
“Big iron” instruments, aka diagnostic radiology equipment such as x-ray, ultrasound, and CT scanners, are indispensable for diagnosing and guiding treatment for an array of conditions from tumors to arthritis to fractures. While a tremendous asset for hospitals, these instruments are traditionally large, heavy, power hungry, and expensive. They are also difficult to acquire, install, and use.
Scientists have produced a new, powerful electricity-conducting material that could improve wearable technologies, including medical devices. The new technique uses hyaluronic acid applied directly to a gold-plated surface to create a thinner, more durable film, or polymer, used to conduct electricity in devices like biosensors. It could lead to major improvements in the function, cost, and usability of devices like touchscreens and wearable biosensors.
Researchers have developed a wearable wound monitoring device with integrated sensors that could reduce infection risks by minimizing the need for frequent physical contact. The proof-of-concept device is designed for reuse, making it more cost-effective and practical than disposable smart bandages and other emerging wound monitoring technologies.
Researchers have developed a handheld device that could potentially replace stethoscopes as a tool for detecting certain types of heart disease.
The increased functionality of today’s medical devices is astounding. Optical devices, for example, analyze chemicals, toxins, and biologic specimens. Semiconductor devices sense, analyze, and communicate. Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices utilize inertial methods to detect motion, direct light, and move components over short distances. Radiofrequency (RF) devices communicate wirelessly to other devices directly and remotely over the Internet. Handheld acoustic devices scan the body and build a virtual 3D model that shows conditions in the body. The innovation currently happening in the medical device industry is staggering, limited only by imagination and finding technical methods to implement the vision.
Researchers have created a groundbreaking prototype for a new kind of leadless pacemaker designed for both children and adults. The innovative micropacemaker would be the first fully leadless system to be placed in the pericardial space surrounding the heart. That would allow the device to be implanted in a minimally invasive way in children and those with congenital heart disease, while also providing a lower-risk leadless pacemaker option for adults.
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