MPO: Making Space for Medical Device Innovation

The July 19, 2022 edition of Medical Product Outsourcing (MPO) features Making Space for Medical Device Innovation by Kenneth MacCallum, Principal Engineering Physicist at StarFish Medical. The online and print exclusive shares innovation strategies for medical device development.

MacCallum indicates two key conditions that significantly impact the chances of success when developing innovative medical devices: “Creating sufficient space to achieve it and the act of admitting you need to innovate.” He lays out a limited definition of “innovation” in which the problem-space in medical device development is “so constrained that no known solution exists” and discusses the specific challenges and constraints encountered within the different program dimensions. These include: time, budget, and scope.

He suggests: “Instead of shying from the challenge, we must freely admit we’re trying to achieve something that has never been done before, then move forward deliberately.”

Kenneth MacCallum is a professional engineer at StarFish with a degree in engineering physics and 25 years of product development experience in medical, metrology, and ROV products. He is perfectly suited to multidisciplinary projects involving electronics, optics, lasers, complex mechanical design, and software as well as mathematically intense or ill-defined problems, having experience in all of these areas. His primary focus is in analog and digital hardware design as well as firmware and programmable logic.