Blog
Featured stories brought to you by HSD
The Benefits of Appropriate Aesthetics in Medical Device Design
Historically, the stance on aesthetics in medical design has been described as “form follows function.” The outward design of a product always takes a backseat to the simple need for the product to perform its function, often being dismissed altogether. However, with...
HSD Product Development Profile
Hs Design, located in Gladstone, NJ is a product design firm that specializes in creating medical devices. Tor Alden explains, “We felt that we needed to be more than a design firm. We could have been a design firm where other product development firms will come to us...
Who Needs a Product Champion?
At HS Design, we often talk about projects moving forward through design and commercialization. One of the “hidden” steps that is integral to creating a successful project, is a Product Champion. When discussing tools and different aspects of projects that are in...
Why is a Product Champion Important for Start-ups?
For startups, having a Product Champion is critically important to see a new project through from design to commercialization. A Product Champion is someone that's devoted to the product itself. This person is the one responsible for driving the decision to make sure...
Applied Human Factors in Medical Device Design
Dr. Mary Beth Privitera, Research and Human Factors Principal at HS Design and Co-Chair of the AAMI Human Engineering Committee joins hsDNA to introduce her new book titled Applied Human Factors in Medical Device Design. The book began with a recognition of the new...
hsDNA – ISO 13485
What is the International Organization of Standard (ISO) 13485? For some firms that develop medical devices, ISO 13485 is really important standard. For others, the standard doesn’t mean much. One thing folks think of is that an ISO certified quality management system...
Product Champion
When companies get started with a new product design project, the first question the HS Design leadership team will ask is, “Who will be your product champion?” Inevitably, the answer is, “What is a product champion?” Most are familiar with a project manager, but the...
Aesthetics in the Design Process
The medical device and life science industries have traditionally taken their design cues from other industries, such as automotive, consumer products, and commercial applications. In some ways, they still do. However, medical device designs are incorporating many of...
Checkpoints to consider for Design
When starting any project, there are checkpoints for design that help drive the end product. At a company like HSD that has always been a medical and life science product development firm, the roots of the company and leadership have always been in design. Design is...
Importance of design
The current state of Industrial Design and User Interface Design In the past, medical product design firms would get caught up in the importance of quality, ISO 13485, and human factors etc. Today medical device design is an extremely regulated industry and for most,...
Michael Quinn talks about Six Sigma Design
Six Sigma means different things to different people, depending on where they are in the product development life cycle. It'll mean something very different at the start of a program versus at the end of a program when a product reaches the manufacturing phase. Six...
What are Human Factors
10 years ago, while human factors were important in consumer products, they were not necessarily a common point of emphasis in the design of a product or medical device. In layman's terms, a company or person could create something that was utterly uncomfortable,...
I have a prototype. It Works! Now What?
For a product development firm to engage with a start-up group, they could come in at any stage really. How they’re engaged depends on the goals of the companies that come in. For startups specifically, it could mean that they need help taking their idea or their...
Podcast: Solving Complex Problems to Create State of the Art Medical Devices
Industrial design as a whole is a wide open and diverse field that touches lives every day in nearly every activity. The big differentiation between industrial design in consumer product development and medical product development are the certification processes and...
Advice for Designing Home Healthcare Devices
In-home medical devices constitute a wide range of products, from prosthetic and orthotic appliances to home monitoring devices to medical wearables. But with all the progress that digital healthcare provides, medical device designers face a new challenge: how to infuse products redolent of disease and decline with intuitiveness, comfort, and even delight.