Streamline Medical Device Design by Engaging Early with An Expert Textile Component Supplier

2024-04-01

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Medical device design starts at raw material selection. However, medical device manufacturers often need foundational guidance about medical device textiles — how they’re made, how they function inside a device, and how to choose the right materials based on device application. Different considerations often apply to raw material selection, prototyping, and scale-up, and medical device manufacturers might not know exactly where to start. Therefore, they are well-served by securing the guidance of a medical device component partner — ideally, a supplier who is dedicated solely to implantable textiles. Device manufacturers know from a high level that they need fabrics for their devices. But a common lack of understanding about how the material selection process works can slow decision-making and impact project timelines. Additionally, device manufacturers — despite being experts in their device and its functionality — may not always immediately grasp the nuances of how different textiles perform within the context of different applications in a way that ensures optimal benefit to patients. A textile expert’s narrow focus on textiles streamlines product development. The ideal supplier has been entrenched in the process for decades, offering fundamental knowledge of the product lifecycle, from relationship-building at the prototyping stage and material selection to polymer science and finished textile components for small runs or scaling up for commercialization. While some textile component suppliers may bog down initial discussions by sidetracking customers about stent or catheter design, a supplier dedicated to textiles keeps the discussion focused on what is necessary to provide a customer with the best textile material for their device, whether it’s for a cardiovascular, general surgery, orthopedic, or neurovascular application. Organizations with bundled services can slow product development and necessitate the completion of numerous partnership agreements before textile design can begin in earnest. The medical device engineer’s goal is the same as that of the textile-focused supplier: a fast project start that concentrates on textiles, rather than every aspect of the project. To this end, the expert supplier has readily available samples and off-the-shelf (OTS) fabrics for customer consideration, offers quick quotes for small runs, and delivers a prototype within a few weeks. A Fabric Solution for Every Challenge A textile supplier continuously identifies challenges associated with implantable medical devices and develops solutions guided by the flexible nature of textiles. This is accomplished by monitoring the market via customer projects and interactions, staying informed on market trends, and constantly striving for new knowledge to enhance medical devices with custom services and capabilities. A singular focus on textiles ensures they approach every medical device problem with a textile solution to foster innovation. The hands-on textile-based solution supplier gives customers confidence in material selection and utilization during the early stages of product development, enabling customers to focus on other activities, such as prepping for clinical trials. Leveraging experienced-based insight, the supplier should be innately proactive in identifying device design or performance problems before they arise or as they occur, without the need for a direct request from the customer. Streamlining these early-stage steps accelerates discussions, which helps forge a path to a valuable solutions-based relationship. Early Value is Everything Material selection can be a big pain point for medical device manufacturers. An expert textile partner establishes its value early in a partnership by streamlining this complex process. Secant Group, for example, has provided fabrics for countless medical devices that use textiles, enabling sketch-to-scale capabilities that are derived from decades’ worth of textile designs, many of which have become industry standard. Moreover, this allows us to offer many viable OTS fabrics and custom-engineered textile solutions to meet specific device applications. Translating customer needs internally must happen quickly to provide value. The ideal textile partner facilitates that urgency with technical and business teams that are equal in their knowledge of textiles and in-house capabilities: design and development, prototyping, analytical testing, core competencies (e.g., braiding, knitting, weaving), and post-processing techniques, for example. This expertise extends to predicate devices and components, powered by access to operational staff trained on specific equipment and work within standard operations. In addition to simplifying the textile-selection process — from raw material selection and design (e.g., building in application-specific characteristics such as pick density and permeability) to prototyping and finishing — a textile expert strives to provide transparency in all operations. Customers may come into the process “blind,” but once they see CAD and SEM assets during development — and eventually fabric and prototype iterations — they are able to better understand the value of working directly with an expert textile partner. Final Thoughts While identifying, sourcing, and implementing appropriate textiles for a medical device may initially seem stressful and likely to delay development timelines, a textile expert can alleviate all these concerns by streamlining the process with high transparency and an educational touch, from selecting raw materials and prototyping to scale-up. Medical device manufacturers who work with a supplier partner who is solely dedicated to designing, modifying, and manufacturing medical textiles for implantable devices can confidently make decisions that keep projects on track for launch. About The Authors Andrew Metzger is Senior Director of Corporate Strategy at Solesis, parent company of Secant Group. He leads internal innovation and business strategy to serve new and emerging market needs for medical textile components for medical devices used in cardiovascular, general surgery, orthopedic, and neurovascular applications. Andrew has a bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering from Drexel University. Amy Zakrzewski is Director of Strategic Account Management at Solesis. She works closely with leading global medical device manufacturers in the cardiovascular, orthopedic, neurovascular, and surgical markets. Amy joined Secant Group in 2009, where she has worked in Engineering, Account Management, and Business Development. Amy has a bachelor of science degree in textile engineering technology and a master’s degree in business administration from Thomas Jefferson University. Dan Treusch is Senior Business Development Director at Solesis. He works with leading global medical device manufacturers, startups, and new accounts. Dan joined Secant Group in 2011 after 10 years in textile manufacturing, where he started in Engineering before moving over to Business Development in less than three years. Dan has a bachelor of science degree in textile design from Thomas Jefferson University. About Secant Group Secant Group designs and develops custom-engineered, next-generation textiles and biomaterials solutions that enable repair, recovery, and regeneration of the human body. With decades of experience in implantable medical component design, development, and manufacturing, Secant Group gives market leaders confidence to innovate more boldly across medical devices, cell therapy, tissue engineering, and drug delivery to make lifechanging breakthroughs more accessible to more patients with unmet needs. From prototyping to commercialization, Secant Group is the collaborative, integrated partner of choice in the cardiovascular, neurovascular, orthopedic, surgical, and pharmaceutical spaces. To start your medical device project today, visit secant.com. To learn more about Solesis, parent company of Secant Group, visit solesis.com. Sponsored content by Secant Group