Medical Technologies
Description
Medical technology can be defined as the application of science and engineering to develop solutions to health problems or issues, including the design of smart devices for predictive and diagnostic healthcare. Medical technologies are used to lower the risk of a disease, minimise illness duration, enhance the quality and accuracy of care and widen access to care. Therefore, medical technology plays an important part in our society in improving quality of life and reducing the effect of debilitating illnesses.
The most significant trend in healthcare product innovation is to bring together different medical technologies to satisfy the needs of patients and medical professionals. Medical technologies are rapidly converging and having a major influence on the development of new medical devices to deliver more efficient products. Among others, these technologies include artificial intelligence, gene editing and therapy, organ and tissue printing.
This module aims to give students a deep understanding of the medical technology field, with a special focus on medical device design and engineering. The topics will be presented through case studies and will include a team project demonstrating the ability to develop a medical device concept incorporating several existing and emerging technologies, including software as medical device (SaMD).
Learning Outcomes
Analyse several current and future medical technologies, including software as medical device, and how they are applied or planned to be applied in healthcare,
Discuss how future medical technologies could influence the nature of healthcare provision, as well as predictive and diagnostic healthcare,
Examine the opportunities for the application of future medical technologies,
Determine the development and commercial challenges within the medical device development process,
Apply the medical device development process, from clinical need through to regulatory approval and product introduction,
Develop a medical device concept using the medical device development process, including clinical need, user needs, patient feedbacks and stakeholder needs, using several technologies.