PrintCOMPAMED has cemented its place as a leading international marketplace of precision supplies for the medical manufacturing space and we caught up with Dr. Justin Gaynor, Vice President, IntraSense at SMI Pressure Sensors who is speaking at the event on safety considerations in invasive pressure sensing.
Q&A With Dr. Justin F. Gaynor
Accumold: What best practices exist to test the long term safety implications of implantable sensors?
Dr. Justin Gaynor: Although regulations are often perceived by outsiders to be burdensome, in fact, they contribute heavily to the evolution of best practices. A regulation provides a solid framework for developing test protocols, since everybody has a common understanding of the minimum requirements for a successful and safe product. More recently, regulations have become a little more open-ended, in the sense that risk now needs to be assessed internally by each organization. The ability to foresee and identify risks has become a competitive advantage. I think we’ll see that the most successful companies going forward are those that are able to de-risk their products the most quickly and inexpensively.
One of the limitations facing innovators now is the difficulty of getting meaningful data from animal models. One of the most exciting trends now in Pharma is the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to make predictions that are both cheaper and more accurate than animal testing, and of course, eliminate the entire ethical review process (in a good way). Certainly, this work can also be applied to at least the biocompatibility aspects of new implant development.
Accumold: Are there standard snags that plague OEMs when focusing on future safety concerns?
Dr. Justin Gaynor: Every organization needs to find a balance between speed and effectiveness. There really is some truth in the statement, “Slow down, we’re in a hurry.” Thinking hard about risks up front, and allowing time and breadth for this process, is going to save stumbles in the long term.
Because of SMI’s background, have you seen any medical breakthroughs come from your other verticals?
Dr. Justin Gaynor: SMI, which has recently become part of TE Connectivity’s Sensor Solutions business, has certainly benefitted through our breadth in the pressure measurement space. A perfect example comes from our lowest-pressure sensors, the SM933X series. These were originally developed with HVAC as the driving market, but we learned along the way that they are so accurate that they are now being implemented in medical respiration equipment because they can actually measure gas flows very accurately. The materials we use to withstand chemical attack inside a car exhaust system are also effective in withstanding biological attack and are biocompatible to boot – that’s a technology we had already developed when we made the move into in-vivo sensing with our IntraSense line.
Attend Dr. Justin Gaynor’s Talk
Dr. Justin F. Gaynor’s talk is Wednesday, Nov 20th. from 11:50 – 12:10. More information is here. Taking place annually in Düsseldorf offers high-tech solutions for the field of medical technology and has established itself in recent years as a leading international marketplace for suppliers of medical manufacturing. To learn more about Compamed, go to their official website.
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