Developing Your Product Design Specification - Medical Device Design: Innovation from Concept to Market - page 94

subject area. They can range from general medical devices exhibitions (such as MEDICA in
Germany) to discipline subject meetings (such as the Foot and Ankle meeting). All are valid;
but you have to be discerning.
If you want to meet the current thinkers in your design space go to the relevant meeting.
Some will be highly clinical (those organized by medical bodies); some will be highly
scientific (organized by scientific/engineering bodies); and some will be aimed at the trade
(organized by trade organizations). Some will be attended by 100,000 people, some only 10.
The main thing is to plan what you are going for: What are you trying to find out about? What
is it you want to know?
If you go to a conference, download the program of talks and pick the ones you really
want to go to. Go, listen, and take notes. You may even have found a member for a focus
group! Make sure you get a copy of the conference proceedings. At conferences some
people put up posters, sometimes photographs are allowed, sometimes not…you need to
check beforehand.
Conferences are an excellent venue for a focus group; the people you want will probably be
going anyway. If you need to invite somebody, what is better than to invite them to participate
in a conference? Equally, annual trade meetings are also good venues for focus groups, for
the same reasons.
5.4.8 Others
While I have listed many sources they are by no means a definitive list. You are open to
use all of your intelligence, whiles, and guiles to determine the information you want. Just
remember three main rules:
It has to be legal.
It has to be reputable.
It has to be documented.
CASE STUDY 5.3
In this section we will look at a case study to enable you to see the basics of a product design
specification. I have tried to make the PDS complete but no doubt you will find some missing
items, or you may disagree with some of the terms. Do not worry, it is not meant to be a model
answer!
In this case study we shall develop a PDS for a simple drill bit for drilling into bone. (This
example has been selected as it is easy to imagine the outcome.)
After holding discussions with the surgical team and OR theater staff the following points were
critical: it must be 4.8 mm diameter; it must have a stab point; it must be reusable; the flutes
should be a minimum of 50 mm long; and the overall length should be 200 mm.