Medical Design Briefs - November 2022 - 24

Power Supplies:
Speeding Time
to Market
for Medical
Equipment
T
oday's increasingly challenging
system requirements and accompanying
shortened design
cycles put more pressure than
ever on medical equipment designers.
Both can be seen as a major contributor
to projects being delivered to market
late, especially if a problem identified
in testing leads to an extra design spin. Indeed,
it is estimated that the average new
product development schedule overruns
by up to 20 percent - which could be as
much as six months for major new medical
designs. Naturally, the consequences of being
late to market are very wide ranging
and can have a significant (negative) impact
on a medical OEM's business.
This article explores the effect that late
product launches have on medical designs
and looks at ways that intelligent
insight from equipment power supplies
can play a key role in getting a project to
market on time.
The Medical Equipment Market and
Power Supplies
The medical equipment market is large
and diverse, encompassing everything
from MRI machines and other whole-body
scanners to small ambulatory devices that
are worn by the patient, either temporarily
or long term. According to research firm
Fortune Business Insights, the global market
for medical devices was worth US
$432.23 billion in 2020. While this declined
slightly during the pandemic, the
market is expected to reach US $657.98
24
billion by 2028, representing a CAGR of
5.4 percent (see Figure 1).
This growth is being driven by increasing
prevalence of some chronic conditions
as well as a strategy for early diagnosis and
treatment, which is leading to more patients
undergoing diagnosis and, in some
cases, surgical procedures - requiring
more medical equipment.
Due to the breadth of equipment deployed,
there is a corresponding diversity
of power supplies used in medical applications,
encompassing everything from
small external devices through to large
and complex power systems in scanners.
One of the principal differentiators of
power solutions in medical applications is
the safety requirements.
All power supplies used in medical applications
require enhanced safety compared
to, say, an office application, to provide
protection to the patient as well as the
medical professional operating the equipment.
The safety requirements become
particularly stringent in applications such
as ECG where the patient is directly connected
to the equipment.
Additional challenges in medical applications
can include the need for quiet
(fanless) operation as well as requirements
for sealing so as to protect the power supply
against liquid ingress during cleaning
or disinfecting procedures.
Getting to Market Quickly
Often, the reasons for wanting to deliver
a new product to market quickly are
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commercial. The manufacturer would
benefit from enhanced revenue and market
share if they are the first with a new
technology. While this remains true in the
medical sphere, there is often a clinical
need as well - the faster a product is delivered,
the better the health outcomes,
whether it's treating people earlier or saving
lives (see Figure 2).
When a product is delivered to market
early, it can enjoy a longer time before it becomes
obsolete and greater market share
during the longer life cycle. It has been estimated
that if a product is between 9 and 12
months late to market, then 50 percent of
the anticipated revenues can be lost, turning
a profitable project into a loss-maker.
Often the power solution is one of the
last aspects of a design to be considered.
One of the primary reasons for this is
that, until the system design is relatively
stable, the voltages and currents needed
for the system are not fully known - potentially
leading to a requirement to select
another power solution - delaying
the market release.
The greatest challenge in reducing time
to market is ensuring that testing and qualification
are passed first time, every time as
every respin of the design introduces significant
delays and costs. While this is a simple
concept, it is often difficult to execute, particularly
in complex equipment. As more
features are added to even the simplest device,
the testing requirements grow, requiring
every corner of the specification to be
tested, often (slightly) beyond its limits.
Medical Design Briefs, November 2022
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Medical Design Briefs - November 2022

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