Earlier this month, the world's largest collection of suppliers, engineers and executives in the medtech industry gathered at the Anaheim Convention Center for MD&M West 2017. Product Creation Studio was honored to speak, chair and host a table in the Exhibit Hall. 

Stand out sessions during the conference included Allison Komiyama's talk "FDA Regulatory Issues: What Engineers Need to Know", which centered on prioritized 2017 FDA guidance. 

In her talk, Allison shared the A, B and C lists for medical device guidance documents that the agency intends to publish in 2017.  One big A-List topic was the use of real-world evidence to support regulatory decision making for medical devices. 

This topic will introduce a new way of collecting data for product validation.  Not everything will have to be done with verified design tools in the coming years. 

Another session we enjoyed was hosted by Pierre Theodore, MD of Johnson & Johnson. In his presentation, Dr. Theodore mapped out the ways that J&J fosters innovation across multiple dimensions. 

Rather than a one size fits all approach, J&J brings different support models to programs that range from internal development all the way to external startups in white space technology.

A fascinating story on innovation at the corporate level. 

Our VP of Operations Blake Stancik also shared his talk "Get Your Product to Market with Less: Paradigms for Innovation" in which he identified areas of cost in the development cycle, touched on why team is important and explored direct design transfer concepts. 

CTO Scott Thielman also discussed in his session how product success depends on a mix of user psychology, design creativity and engineering execution. 

As a follow up, Scott's recent podcast interview with Cult/Tech sheds even more light on the product development process and the earmarks of prototype success.