Background Apublicly traded medical device manufacturer with 33,000 employees and several international locations approached SPK and Associates for assistance in streamlining their validation processes. The validation process took months, but the customer wanted...
Medical Device Engineering
Accelerating Product Releases with Business Process Automation
The beauty of business process automation How often have we entered the same information into two different systems and wondered, “Why do I have to waste my time doing this?” These are computers, aren’t they? Shouldn’t this information flow where it needs...
Test Management in Windchill RV&S (PTC Integrity)
The importance of test management, especially in highly-regulated industries, cannot be overstated. Efficient management of testing requirements leads to safer products, effective production, and satisfied customers. The PTC Windchill Requirements Validation &...
Risk Management in Windchill RV&S (formerly PTC Integrity Lifecycle Manager)
An important part of creating any product intended for use in any regulated industry vertical is that the manufacturer should have identified all of the risks involved in using the device. Then, they must have done their best to mitigate those risks before their...
3 Top Trends in Product Lifecycle Engineering Tools
Overview In 2015, SPK and Associates co-founder Chris McHale spoke with Peter Thorne, Director at Cambashi, a Cambridge, England-based independent industry analyst firm. With his over 30 years of experience as a software engineer user, vendor, and now analyst, Peter’s...
OSS, Heartbleed, and the Impact on Medical Device Design
The use of open source software (OSS) within the medical device industry is a double edged sword. On one end of the spectrum, you have freely available code that is available for the world to scrutinize. In the process, one would hope that bugs are more easily...
March 19th Medical Device Seminar: Ready for ROHS 2 in July 2014?
Device manufacturers have until this summer to ensure their devices comply with the EU's Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive – commonly called the RoHS Directive – to be able to earn CE Marking. In short, no RoHS compliance, no CE Marking, no selling in the...
Medical Device Interoperability: A $30B opportunity?
Greater medical device interoperability and the adoption of commonly accepted standards could save the US in excess of $30B, suggests a West Health Institute report published in March. Lack of device interoperability creates significant waste and risk to patient...
Cyber Security in Medical Device Design
With the push by big technology players (Cisco, Google, Intel, etc.) towards connectivity in everyday devices, cyber security is becoming more and more crucial. This push is even seen in medical device design as the industry begins to move toward cloud-integrated and...
Wearable Medical Devices: The Latest Medical Device Design Trend
As humans, we depend on feedback. Everyone likes feedback, whether a glance in the mirror, a friendly compliment or financial reward for a great job. Now thanks to the advancement of medical device design, high tech trends, and use of micro-computers, you can get...
Modern Medical Device Design in the IoT Era
In the past, medical device design focused on a standalone unit or a group of a couple devices that worked together. While that was a great idea, the number of compatibility issues that could occur also blocked connectivity to other devices. With the stream of new...
Medical Device Development: First to Market
In the world of fast competitive marketing, a lot of attention goes to the first company who develops a creative breakthrough and comes out with a cool new device first. New technology in the medical device market has resulted in several new products which include;...