The Minds Behind Medical Devices

When I relocated to New York in the 1990's to work with a medical device manufacturer it was an exciting time to be working alongside of the R&D team and the engineers who were designing medical products. Field training for my position was witnessing firsthand the EMT crews and emergency room physicians working on patients in emergency situations.

I recall riding in an ambulance with paramedics in Connecticut and watching our life saving products in action. It would be the premise for the research required for new and innovative products and part of my job entailed designing the business plans to support these new products.

One day while in the R&D laboratory, one of the product designers had a brilliant idea about a brain cooling device and he was certain that the medical applications would be endless. The problem was that up until the late 1990's and early into 2000, there simply wasn't enough research about cooling effects upon the human brain. The designer was light years ahead of himself.

He decided that the only way to form a baseline of neurological effects of cooling on the body was to expose himself to hypothermia and track his bodily reactions. Let me preface this by adding that none of the team knew what he was doing in the lab behind closed doors and this was totally against protocol.

After an hour or so of his missing in action we were able to locate him in the midst of his brain cooling endeavor. It would be the beginning of research that would lead to clinical advances in the field of brain cooling and stroke victims. Many hospitals would go on to implement similar cooling procedures and Georgetown University Pediatric Hospital is currently utilizing brain cooling in the neonatal ward. Their website states, "neonatologists reduce the baby's core body temperature over a period of 72 hours. Studies report a 16 to 27 percent drop in the number of deaths or severe disability."

For many years we knew that "ice might help, won't hurt" but we were never successful in providing a business plan to launch the brain cooling device for this medical device manufacturer. It's nice to know that others have succeeded where we may have failed.

If someone you know experiences a stroke or a brain injury, you should grab the ice and apply it to the head and neck. It will slow the flow of blood and just might save their life.

It might help and definitely won't hurt.

Sadly, just this past week in Washington, Mark Leahey, President and CEO of the Medical Device Manufacturers Association (MDMA), noted that "the United States could lose its position as the global leader in medical technology if the environment does not improve."

Sources:

http://www.georgetownuniversityhospital.org/body.cfm?id=555866

http://nciia.org/node/1197

http://releases.jhu.edu/2010/06/14/brain-cooling-device/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-12261728

http://www.starcitynews.com/could-brain-cooling-aid-stroke-recovery/3133

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1103&MainCatID=&id=20110214000121