Medical device manufacturers are facing a huge task. This is a result of the MDR.
You can either attempt to modernise your existing product portfolio to comply with the MDR, which is very costly, or focus on the most profitable products. Unfortunately, this approach reduces the variety of medical devices and, consequently, the variety of treatment options, which affects patients directly.
However, this does not have to be the case!
"Don't waste, reuse" - sustainability in medical technology
Even the youngest members of our society are made aware of simple approaches on a daily basis. When applied correctly, these approaches can unleash enormous potential.
‘Don’t waste, reuse!’
Development of centralised control software
We are currently developing software for a central control component together with one of our medical technology customers. This software fully embodies the approach we are taking.
Our desire to use software and electronics in all controllers for a product category presented us with a crucial challenge at the start of the project.
We had to take into account all existing peripheral components (sensors and actuators), even though the existing product landscape resembled a colourful flower meadow.
Flexible software architecture for MDR-compliant medical devices
The first step was to develop a software architecture with a multi-layered, hardware-oriented design. This offers great potential for changing the hardware platform with minimal effort if necessary. This is primarily achieved through the consistent use of software interfaces with the hardware drivers.
In the functional layers above, we created function blocks to perform recurring tasks for the control component’s overall functionality. Access to sensors and actuators is also controlled via software interfaces. This means that it is irrelevant to the overall functionality whether a measured value can be collected directly or must be queried by an intelligent peripheral component.
This standardisation enables the use of a variety of peripheral variants, while also making them interchangeable between different system variants.
Library approach for maximum reuse
The many small, functional puzzle pieces were developed and managed as part of a library project. They were then skilfully assembled and put to use in the system project.
A concrete system project ultimately consists almost exclusively of linking and configuration information for library elements.
A graphical configurator could handle the combination options and minimise the time taken to create a new system variant (at least at the software level).
Conclusion: simplicity with great potential
In conclusion, it can be said that enormous potential in terms of cost reduction and time-to-market in the area of development can be achieved with very simple and widespread approaches.
Ultimately, our customer showed great courage in overcoming the most difficult hurdle of all: letting go of the past and making a fresh start with technology and structure.
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