Using Medical Device Standards for Design and Risk Management of Immersive Virtual Reality for At-Home Therapy and Remote Patient Monitoring

Accelerating neurotechnology development using an Agile methodology

Novel bioelectronic medical devices that target neural control of visceral organs (e.g., liver, gut, spleen) or inflammatory reflex pathways are innovative class III medical devices like implantable cardiac pacemakers that are lifesaving and life-sustaining medical devices. Bringing innovative neurotechnologies early into the market and the hands of treatment providers would benefit a large population of patients inflicted with autonomic and chronic immune disorders. Medical device manufacturers and software developers widely use the Waterfall methodology to implement design controls through verification and validation. In the Waterfall methodology, after identifying user needs, a functional unit is fabricated following the verification loop (design, build, and verify) and then validated against user needs. Considerable time can lapse in building, verifying, and validating the product because this methodology has limitations for adjusting to unanticipated changes. The time lost in device development can cause significant delays in final production, increase costs, and may even result in the abandonment of the device development. Software developers have successfully implemented an Agile methodology that overcomes these limitations in developing medical software. However, Agile methodology is not routinely used to develop medical devices with implantable hardware because of the increased regulatory burden of the need to conduct animal and human studies. Here, we provide the pros and cons of the Waterfall methodology and make a case for adopting the Agile methodology in developing medical devices with physical components. We utilize a peripheral nerve interface as an example device to illustrate the use of the Agile approach to develop neurotechnologies.

Review on people's trust on home use medical devices during Covid-19 pandemic in India

With the rapid development of the medical device against COVID-19 is an excellent achievement. There are numerous obstacles effectively facing the worldwide population, from manufacture to distribution, deployment and, acceptance. Many manufacturers have entered the market rivalry as people's knowledge and demand for home-use medical equipment has increased. India represents a compelling market opportunity for global medical device manufacturers. Substantial growth for the Indian medical device industry is expected to be driven by the current low per-person spending rate for medical devices. The growth of the medical devices industry in India raises competition law issues (anti-trust) and therefore maintaining public trust in home-use medical devices during COVID-19 will be as essential. The review article aims to create awareness among people about commonly used medical devices during the COVID-19 pandemic and to survey people’s trust in home usable medical devices in India. In a worldwide pandemic, manufacturers of medical devices face insufficient storage and the impossibility of meeting the requirements of the health centre. The sale of some of the most significant medical devices has increased, making it more difficult for the medical device industry to satisfy demand with high-quality goods since the quality of COVID-19 items plays a vital part in the present scenario. Despite the difficulty in providing enough medical equipment during a pandemic, they are striving to adapt to the circumstance. After recognizing the need to promote awareness and grasp the selling, and production, handling of medical instruments during COVID-19 at home was conducted. In addition, medical equipment manufacturers and distributors look at this scenario as an opportunity to profit more. This review article would enable researchers during COVID-19 to build more knowledge and widespread trust in medical technologies respectively.