As a company that develops medical products that typically comprise micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), our greatest engineering challenge is rooted in the sheer physical size of our devices. For example, our flagship product is a robotically steerable interventional guidewire with a diameter of 0.014 in. (0.36mm)—the IntelliWire.

At this year's MD&M West, bioresorbable and bioabsorbable materials were the focus of conference sessions and company product announcements alike. At the MedTech Innovate Seminar session on bioresorbable materials, Dennis D.

Venture capital (VC) funding in the biotechnology and medical device sectors fell in 2012, dropping 14% in dollars and 7% in deals. In absolute numbers, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, VC investments totaled $6.6 billion in 2012, down $1.1 billion from 2011. And while 836 VC deals were struck in 2011, there were only 779 last year. But that's not all.

Some alternative, lead-free materials developed to comply with RoHS requirements can produce tin whiskers, which can cause shorts and device failures.

At the MD&M We

Dan Barry

A tsunami of innovation is coming to the field of robotics, explained Dan Barry, MD, PhD at FutureMed. Already, robotics are used for numerous medical applications.

“I just want to say one word to you. Just one word,” said the businessman Mr. McGuire to Dustin Hoffman’s character Benjamin in The Graduate, who had recently completed his college education. That word, of course, was “plastics” and it was offered to Benjamin as a sort of career advice: plastics are going to be big. At the time the film was released in 1967, it would have been hard to foresee just how right Mr. McGuire would be. Plastics are literally all around us.  They are often within us, too, in the form of everything from dental polymers to PEEK spinal implants.

“The computers are in control. We just live in their world.” That quote, attributed to supercomputer pioneer Danny Hillis in a Wired magazine article was meant to be a reflection of the world we live in now. The quote also serves as a predictor for where we are headed as the applications of artificial intelligence will expand greatly in the future.

Batteries have been getting a good deal of attention lately, thanks to the much-publicized Dreamliner problems and the possibility that lithium-ion batteries played a role in them.

Microfluidic CD system developed at the University of California, Irvine, can be used to perform medical diagnostic applications.

On Wednesday, February 13, Marc Madou, Chancellor's Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and biomedical engineering at the Universi