TLI Community Plays Key Role in DMD Conference on U Campus
This week’s Design of Medical Devices (DMD) Conference at the U of M featured a dizzying array of sessions and keynotes by rock stars in the field of medical device engineering, and TLI faculty, staff, board members and students played a prominent role in the event
The 2024 conference showcased speakers like Dr. Rashid Bashir, who discussed the intersection of engineering and biology, and Ken Washington of Medtronic, focusing on technological and innovative strides in the medical device sector.
Sessions covered various topics from advances in medical devices, environmental sustainability in medical technologies, and virtual modeling in healthcare to specialized areas like cardiac mapping and orthopedics.
TLI instructor Mac McKeen helped lead a full day session on Monday called Regulatory 101: Medical Devices. “I serve on the RAPS [Regulatory Affairs Professional Society] Planning Committee and helped prepare the “Regulatory 101” program at the conference,” said Mac. “This is the second year of RAPS and U of M DMD collaborating on this relevant and valuable content relative to the overall DMD program. Having this on Day 1 of the conference sets the foundation for how engineers and innovators can learn about the scientific and regulatory requirements related to their products and how to successfully engage and navigate the regulatory process to obtain approval and commercially sell their products.
“I also presented on the FDA pre-submission meeting process and the PMA [pre-market approval] submission process. These are core elements of the MDI 5008 course I teach at TLI”.
MDI program fellow Mark Wehde spent Tuesday morning reviewing student poster designs, including one from Brian Johnson of the MDI program. Tuesday afternoon was spent in a session devoted to the challenges in the underserved pediatric device market with a panel that included TLI Advisory Board Chair Pat Dillon.
“On Wednesday, after the morning keynote by Ken Washington, I was called on to be a juror at the Five-Minute Pitch (5MP) competition,” said Mark. “There were eight really novel and interesting devices including the winner, which was a new pleural biopsy device, the second place winner who shared a flexible patella fracture device, and third place to a really intriguing guide for brain neurosurgery.”
"I liked it a lot,” said MDI student Ida Bagus Kresnasandi of the conference. “The technical sessions as well as the keynote speakers were marvelous, and I was inspired by the technical sessions – especially the one involving wheelchair technology. The trip to Veterans Affairs was beneficial as one of the technical speakers was from VA, and showed her work with 3D printing and surgery.”
Workshops and technical sessions were core elements of the conference, providing insights into cutting-edge developments and offering networking opportunities with industry leaders. The conference included technical sessions on a wide variety of topics such as wearable medical devices, cybersecurity, and robotic healthcare solutions. An interactive session titled "A Heart to Learn" showcased real human hearts, emphasizing hands-on learning and direct engagement with cardiac anatomy.
For more detailed information on the conference schedule, speakers, and session topics, you can visit the conference's official website here.