Stakeholder challenges in purchasing medical devices for patient safety.

OBJECTIVE: This study identifies the stakeholders who have a role in medical device purchasing within the wider system of health-care delivery and reports on their particular challenges to promote patient safety during purchasing decisions. METHODS: Data was collected through observational work, participatory workshops, and semi-structured qualitative interviews, which were analyzed and coded. The study takes a systems-based and engineering design approach to the study. Five hospitals took part in this study, and the participants included maintenance, training, clinical end-users, finance, and risk departments. RESULTS: The main stakeholders for purchasing were identified to be staff from clinical engineering (Maintenance), device users (Clinical), device trainers (Training), and clinical governance for analyzing incidents involving devices (Risk). These stakeholders display varied characteristics in terms of interpretation of their own roles, competencies for selecting devices, awareness and use of resources for purchasing devices, and attitudes toward the purchasing process. The role of "clinical engineering" is seen by these stakeholders to be critical in mediating between training, technical, and financial stakeholders but not always recognized in practice. CONCLUSIONS: The findings show that many device purchasing decisions are tackled in isolation, which is not optimal for decisions requiring knowledge that is currently distributed among different people within different departments. The challenges expressed relate to the wider system of care and equipment management, calling for a more systemic view of purchasing for medical devices.

Exploring an effective model of new product development in medical devices: A knowledge cluster approach

This study proposes a new product development (NPD) model that aims to improve the effectiveness of innovative NPD in the medical devices. By adopting open innovation theory and applying an in-depth investigation methodology, this paper proposes a knowledge cluster that improves the integration of interdisciplinary human resources and enhances the acquirement of innovative technologies. A knowledge cluster approach helps gather, organise, synthesise, and accumulate knowledge in order to become the impetus for innovation. Although enterprises are no longer the principals of research and development, they should still be capable of integrating professional physicians, external groups, and individuals through the knowledge cluster platform. However, in order to support an effective NPD model, enterprises should provide adequate incentives and trust to external individuals or groups willing to contribute their expertise and knowledge to this knowledge cluster platform. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Oxide electronics for imaging and displays

Despite material weaknesses, considerable progress has been made in designing large area systems such as displays and imaging arrays. This talk will address the various large area technologies, and in particular, review amorphous oxide semiconductors and associated design approaches, along with driving schemes for displays, imaging and other applications. © 2013 IEEE.

Development of a nanoporous and multilayer drug-delivery platform for medical implants.

Biodegradable polymers can be applied to a variety of implants for controlled and local drug delivery. The aim of this study is to develop a biodegradable and nanoporous polymeric platform for a wide spectrum of drug-eluting implants with special focus on stent-coating applications. It was synthesized by poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA 65:35, PLGA 75:25) and polycaprolactone (PCL) in a multilayer configuration by means of a spin-coating technique. The antiplatelet drug dipyridamole was loaded into the surface nanopores of the platform. Surface characterization was made by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). Platelet adhesion and drug-release kinetic studies were then carried out. The study revealed that the multilayer films are highly nanoporous, whereas the single layers of PLGA are atomically smooth and spherulites are formed in PCL. Their nanoporosity (pore diameter, depth, density, surface roughness) can be tailored by tuning the growth parameters (eg, spinning speed, polymer concentration), essential for drug-delivery performance. The origin of pore formation may be attributed to the phase separation of polymer blends via the spinodal decomposition mechanism. SE studies revealed the structural characteristics, film thickness, and optical properties even of the single layers in the triple-layer construct, providing substantial information for drug loading and complement AFM findings. Platelet adhesion studies showed that the dipyridamole-loaded coatings inhibit platelet aggregation that is a prerequisite for clotting. Finally, the films exhibited sustained release profiles of dipyridamole over 70 days. These results indicate that the current multilayer phase therapeutic approach constitutes an effective drug-delivery platform for drug-eluting implants and especially for cardiovascular stent applications.

Biofunctionalization of PET/SiO2 surfaces for single molecule experiments and medical applications

PET/SiO2 layers were chemically modified to maintain immobilization of functional single molecules. GFP molecules provide an ideal system due to their stability and intrinsic fluorescence. GFP in vivo biotinylated within its NH2-terminal region and attached on the substrate via the biotinstreptavidin bond was further investigated with confocal microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). AFM revealed monolayered donut-like structures representing assemblies of biotinstreptavidinbiotinGFP immobilized onto PET/SiO2 surfaces via mPEG. In particular, regions with an approximate height of 12 nm, which approaches the molecular dimensions of the above complex given by molecular modeling, could be detected. The dimensions of the donut-like structures suggest a close-to-each-other positioning of the GFP molecules - which, however, retain their functionality, as evidenced by confocal microscopy. © 2011 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Graphene nanoribbon blends with P3HT for organic electronics.

In organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) the electrical characteristics of polymeric semiconducting materials suffer from the presence of structural/morphological defects and grain boundaries as well as amorphous domains within the film, hindering an efficient transport of charges. To improve the percolation of charges we blend a regioregular poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) with newly designed N = 18 armchair graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). The latter, prepared by a bottom-up solution synthesis, are expected to form solid aggregates which cannot be easily interfaced with metallic electrodes, limiting charge injection at metal-semiconductor interfaces, and are characterized by a finite size, thus by grain boundaries, which negatively affect the charge transport within the film. Both P3HT and GNRs are soluble/dispersible in organic solvents, enabling the use of a single step co-deposition process. The resulting OFETs show a three-fold increase in the charge carrier mobilities in blend films, when compared to pure P3HT devices. This behavior can be ascribed to GNRs, and aggregates thereof, facilitating the transport of the charges within the conduction channel by connecting the domains of the semiconductor film. The electronic characteristics of the devices such as the Ion/Ioff ratio are not affected by the addition of GNRs at different loads. Studies of the electrical characteristics under illumination for potential use of our blend films as organic phototransistors (OPTs) reveal a tunable photoresponse. Therefore, our strategy offers a new method towards the enhancement of the performance of OFETs, and holds potential for technological applications in (opto)electronics.

Top down scale-up of semiconducting nanostructures for large area electronics

In this paper, we present a study on electrical and optical characteristics of n-type tin-oxide nanowires integrated based on top-down scale-up strategy. Through a combination of contact printing and plasma based back-channel passivation, we have achieved stable electrical characteristics with standard deviation in mobility and threshold voltage of 9.1% and 25%, respectively, for a large area of 1× 1 cm2 area. Through use of contact printing, high alignment of nanowires was achieved thus minimizing the number of nanowire-nanowire junctions, which serve to limit carrier transport in the channel. In addition, persistent photoconductivity has been observed, which we attribute to oxygen vacancy ionization and subsequent elimination using a gate pulse driving scheme. © 2014 IEEE.