R&D outsourcing system targets medical device developers
08/01/2005
WALTHAM, Mass. - Putting a new spin on the outsourcing of medical device research and development, equipment design company Foster-Miller (www.foster-miller.com) has unveiled a series of services designed to help medical device makers identify, target, design and manufacture successful and safe new products.
The services, known as Innovation Express, are organized by three development phases: technology forecasting, product development, and manufacturing system development. Drawing on the expertise of the company’s 265 engineers, the R&D service begins with market research and extends through equipment build.
Acknowledging that confidentiality and intellectual property (IP) protection are vital to new-product development, Foster-Miller is promising potential customers of its service that they will retain intellectual property on all devices under development.
“Many companies try to piece together different aspects of the product development process using various internal and external resources; this commonly results in disjointed information, redundant efforts and a poor matching of expertise,” explains Ed Goldman, senior vice president at Foster-Miller. He claims that the company’s services will bring a company’s medical device development process to “a single point of focus,” which will speed time-to-market.
The technology forecasting aspect of Foster-Miller’s suite of services identifies developing technologies that are expected to impact the market two to ten years in advance. During product development, the company’s engineers use research results based on one-on-one interviews, focus groups, and customer surveys to help a medical device customer turn its product concepts into prototypes. Testing and evaluation are then performed to establish manufacturing feasibility, and to determine return-on-investment and product life cycle. In the manufacturing system development phase, Foster-Miller’s engineering personnel and physical resources are used to construct a “one-of-a-kind process” for large-scale production of new innovations.
“This suite of services enables companies to outsource the entire product development process, rather than take a costly and time-consuming piecemeal approach,” sums Goldman.