Medical Devices: Improving Health Care Through a Multidisciplinary Approach (Research for Development)

This book provides caregivers and administrators with high-quality support for strategic decision making in the selection and use of medical devices so as to ensure value optimization. Medical treatment is increasingly complex, with wide application of medical devices and corresponding involvement of physics and engineering. A multidisciplinary methodology that brings together expertise from key disciplines in a holistic, system-oriented approach is essential in controlling this complexity and further improving health care. This book will help readers to understand the design, validation, and application of medical devices and the standards and regulations that apply to them across the world. In addition, it provides technical, operational, and economic perspectives on their use. The relevance of concepts such as expenditure optimization and sustainability to medical device technology is explained and healthcare reimbursement systems are discussed from different points of view. Readerswill gain a clear appreciation of the managerial and economic implications of the use of medical devices and how to get the most out of them. Academic research, industrial experiences, and case studies are presented as appropriate.

Carlo Boccato is now retired but acts as a freelance consultant for dialysis center infrastructures and water treatment systems. From 1995 to 2015 he was Project Director, Facility Management at Fresenius Medical Care with responsibility for the definition of technical infrastructures for dialysis centers. He graduated with honors in Physics from State University of Milan in 1976 with a thesis on the use of ultrasonic techniques for diagnostics in neurosurgery. After working as a project engineer at Honeywell Information Systems and as a project engineer and project manager at various aerospace companies, he became head of the project management department at FIAR-Galileo Avionics in 1990. He served as a member of the ISO Working Group on Renal Replacement, Detoxification and Apheresis (ISO/TC150/SC 2/WG05) and a member of the JWG ISO - IEC/SC 62D MT20 for the preparation of a guideline for the safe operation of medical equipment used for hemodialysis treatments.

Sergo Cerutti is Emeritus Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Polytechnic University (PU; Politecnico di Milano), Milan, Italy, where he was Professor of Biomedical Signal and Data Processing in the Department of Electronics, Information, and Bioengineering for more than 20 years until his retirement in 2017. Prior to rejoining PU, where he had studied and been an Associate Professor, he had been Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the Department of Computer and System Sciences at University of Rome “La Sapienza”. His research activity has mainly focused on various aspects of biomedical signal, data processing, and modeling relating to the neurosciences and cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system applications. He is the author of more than 600 indexed international scientific contributions and has an h-index of 55 (ISI score) or 67 (Google Scholar). In 2009 he received the IEEE-EMBS Academic Career Achievement Award, the most important acknowledgement of a scientific career issued by IEEE.

Jörg Vienken was Vice President (Biosciences) at Fresenius Medical Care for almost 20 years until his official retirement in 2013. His previous positions had included Director and Group Leader (Clinical Research & Scientific Marketing; Science Services) at Akzo Nobel AG and board member of Nephro-Solutions AG (Hamburg). He is now a freelance consultant and a member of the Supervisory Board of Zytoprotec GmbH (Vienna). He graduated in Chemical Engineering (Dipl. Ing.) from the Technical University of Darmstadt in 1975 and gained his PhD (Dr. Eng., Biophysics) from RWTH Aachen in 1980 whilst working at the Nuclear Research Center Jülich. the same university in 1990. He subsequently worked as an Assistant Professor at the Nuclear Research Center Jülich at Julius-Maximilians University of Würzburg, Germany. Dr. Vienken still teaches has taught at many universities within Germany and internationally and serves has served on various technical advisory committees and journal editorial boards. He is a past president of the Association of German Biotech Companies (VBU) and the International Federation of Artificial Organs (IFAO). He is a Distinguished Fellow of ERA-EDTA and in 2012 received the Emil S. Bücherl Award for Lifetime Achievement from the European Society for Artificial Organs (ESAO).