Advancing medical device innovation through a six-year industry collaboration

The Image Guided Therapy Research Facility’s (IGTRF) relationship with a successful medical device company has grown through a six-year device development project that stemmed originally from a university research project.  The company’s goal was to progress the development of their device from benchtop evaluations to a clinical setting using a ‘true to life’ model that provided realistic tissue properties and tactile feedback.

IGTRFs role

• Whole body Thiel-embalmed cadavers provided the clinical context for design verification studies.
• Laparoscopic cadaveric pre-screening identified required anatomical landmarks for appropriate model selection.
• Annual support through each developmental cycle over the 6-year period.

The impact

The collaboration provided the company with an accurate testing environment to progress their device from early stages through to regulatory submissions:

“The design, development and feedback have been of huge value, and as we’ve been on a funding journey alongside our development journey, we’ve been able to say, ‘we’ve done the cadaver test with our clinicians, the clinician feedback is positive, and we’ve met the clinical requirement’.  That’s been hugely important when speaking with clinicians, investors and regulatory bodies.”

“We can’t speak highly enough of the team. We would always come to IGTRF with confidence that everything is prepared for the day ahead and we will have great facilities to conduct our testing and development.”