Medical Equipment Design

We did a lot of work on this at a federal medical research institute in India. The institute had a 200 bed super specialty hospital where a large number of devices for interventional procedures were used. Most of the patients were poor and got free treatment. Budget constraints necessitated reuse of disposables. A separate division was set up for this. Elaborate cleaning (including) ultrasonication, vacuum drying, inspection, double packing and terminal sterilization by Gamma Rays, Ethylene Oxide or wet steam as applicable had to be done. An internal third party Q/A finally cleared devices for clinical use. In the early and mid eighties it was difficult to import these devices into India and costs were high. The reuse cost worked out to about 20% of the new device cost. After local manufacture became prevalent we dismantled this facility.