University of Minnesota hosts world's largest medical devices conference April 9-12

Conference includes exhibit of real human hearts, research lab tours, and live surgery broadcasts

Media Note: Mechanical Engineering professor Art Erdman, medical devices expert and chair of the conference, is available for interviews. Media wishing to attend should contact Jenny Holden, Conference Administrator, rampi002@umn.edu or Rhonda Zurn at rzurn@umn.edu.

Who: More than 1,300 medical devices leaders and researchers from around the world

What: University of Minnesota’s Design of Medical Devices Conference

When: April 9-12, 2018

Where: Graduate Hotel Minneapolis, 615 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis and University of Minnesota McNamara Alumni Center, 200 Oak St. SE, Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (04/09/2018) — Medical device leaders and researchers from around the world in both industry and academia will converge at the University of Minnesota’s 17th annual Design of Medical Devices Conference (DMD) April 9-12 at the Graduate Hotel Minneapolis, 615 Washington Ave. S.E., Minneapolis. The conference will address emerging trends related to medical device design, digital health, policy, engineering, education and commercialization.

More than 1,300 people are expected to attend this year’s conference, making it the largest medical devices conference in the world. Additional walk-in registrations are accepted each day.

"The DMD conference continues to grow by all measures, illustrating the critical importance of medical devices and surrounding technologies, policies and clinical needs," said Art Erdman, a University of Minnesota mechanical engineering professor and conference co-chair. “More than 17 years ago we had a vision to establish an event where leaders from academia and industry would come together to share the latest issues in medical device design. This vision has become a successful reality and continues to exceed even our own expectations.”

The conference offers technical sessions on a wide variety of topics, including advances in medical devices, cardiovascular engineering, clinical trials, computational modeling & regulatory science, medical device cybersecurity, drug delivery devices, medical device innovation, micro fluidic medical devices, neuroengineering, orthopedic devices, surgical robotics, wearable medical devices, wheelchair technology, and an innovation workshop.

The conference also includes an interactive “A Heart to Learn” exhibit of real human hearts and live broadcasted surgeries where doctors will give real-time feedback. Lab tours will include the Earl E. Bakken Medical Devices Center, Minnesota Nanotechnology Center, Visible Heart Lab, Bioprinting Facility, and the Bentson Healthy Communities Innovation Center.

Scientific poster sessions that showcase more than 100 emerging topics in the areas of cardiovascular, mems and nano, neuroengineering, surgical tools, orthopedics, computer modeling and simulation, urologic, human factors, rehabilitation, special devices, informatics and tissue engineering.

Opening Plenary and Luncheon keynote addresses will be given by:

• George Church, Professor, Harvard University
• Paul Howard, Senior Advisor to the Commissioner, U.S. Food & Drug Administration
• Michael Coyle, EVP and President, Cardiac and Vascular Group, Medtronic, Inc.
• Jayant Parthasarathy, Deputy Chief Science Officer, UnitedHealth Group

The third day of the conference will include an Emerging Technology Forum "Digital Health." The forum will include keynote presentations by:

• Bakul Patel, U.S. Food & Drug Administration
• Ken Hoyme, Boston Scientific Corporation
• Peter Fitzgerald, Stanford University
• Greg Anthony, Mayo Clinic
• Angie Franks, Central Logic
• Jodi Hubler, Lemhi Ventures

The Design of Medical Devices Conference is presented by the University of Minnesota Earl. E. Bakken Medical Devices Center (part of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine), the College of Science and Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Several corporations are also providing industry sponsorships including 3M Health Care, Abbott, Altair, ANSYS, Archimedes Center for Medical Device Security-University of Michigan, Boston Scientific Corporation, Coloplast Urology Care, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Institute for Engineering in Medicine, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Inc., Orthofix, Reed Tech, Samtec and Shumaker & Sieffert.

For more information on the Design of Medical Devices Conference or to register, visit www.dmd.umn.edu.