Photo gallery: Medtech on display in Anaheim

A call to design innovation

Jon Knight, vice president of R&D in the imaging division of Boston Scientific called on DesignMed attendees to innovate, avoiding the traps of being tied to incremental improvements of existing products. "I think many of the barriers are self imposed and can be overcome," he said.

Companies can measure innovation with a range of metrics including the number of new ideas generated, employees engaged, percent of time and budget spent on innovating, and amount of IP created.

To spark fresh thinking, engineers need to develop real-time communications with customers who are passionate, influential, well versed in technologies and representative of the market, he added.

But medical marches to a different cadence than most of the electronics industry. Design cycles can stretch from three to five years and cost $10-15 million, thanks to the lengthy regulatory process. The product lifecycles can also extend over a 20 year time span, he said.

Headset reads brain waves

Implant cools back pain

8-bitter drives disposable pump

Bluetooth clip on reads vitals

Wired clip carries Freescale chip

A call to design innovation

Clocking progress in weight loss

Keeping an eye on elders

ADI drives beat of heart monitor

Patient monitor gets graphical

FDA decodes software regs

Legos for design engineers

Next stop—the golf course