Interventional Cardiology Instrument

Multinational medical device firm partnered with Meddux to rapidly prototype and refine an innovative cardiology instrument, confirming design feasibility.

Customer Need

Philips, a leading provider of innovative diagnostic and treatment devices within their Image Guided Therapy Devices Group, needed an experienced and user-focused innovation partner to quickly generate novel concepts for a cardiovascular instrument, followed by rapid prototyping to solicit usability feedback from practicing physicians. Philips was looking to accelerate and broaden their innovation process using outside expertise. Philips needed an experienced partner well versed in interventional technology design and manufacturing to successfully de-risk concepts and provide early DFX analysis to establish design feasibility, usability, and manufacturability before initiating full development efforts.

Process

Solution

Meddux jumpstarted Philips' innovation process by quickly progressing a series of top design concepts into rapid prototyping to solicit early user feedback and assess areas of highest technical risk. The development team successfully generated working prototypes for four (4) different concepts within six (6) weeks, in time for a scheduled physician evaluation at a major cardiovascular conference.

Feedback gained from the early physician evaluation accelerated to a single concept that best aligned with user needs, allowing Meddux to focus its design efforts on continued improvements. Additional rapid prototyping and formal evaluation were executed to refine the device design further while improving manufacturability. Final integrated prototypes were tested in a pre-clinical animal study to confirm design efficacy and reduce technical and usability risks.

Value Delivered

Meddux's clinical and technical expertise and user-focused approach provided the necessary innovation horsepower to quickly conceptualize, build, and prove the efficacy of functional prototypes through a series of formative evaluations. The rapid prototyping facilitated a prompt downselection to the top concept based on physician feedback, followed by focused design refinements to reduce technical risk. This allowed Philips to direct internal resources on existing projects while accelerating their new product development pipeline.

My experience with the Meddux team is that they understand the real constraints of time and money that come with development projects. They work closely with customers to ensure they deliver success, rather than just consume the allocated budget and then ask for more when (surprise!) a prototype takes more time, and costs more than anticipated. Effective and timely communication, even if it is to communicate a setback, has been excellent. That kind of communication has allowed us to quickly pivot. Saving time, saving money, and sometimes saving the project.

— Advanced Development Manager, Philips