by Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team

[In the News] IMDMC Elects Officers

The Indiana Medical Device Manufacturers Council (IMDMC) has elected four to serve as officers on the Executive Board.

Tom Barnett, Director of Government Affairs for Roche Diagnostics, will serve as Board President. Barnett joined Roche Diagnostics in 2000. Previously he had held various roles in marketing and governmental affairs, including leadership positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb.  

“The medical devices sector is one of Indiana’s largest and most valuable economic assets representing more than 150 companies and employing more than 20,000 people. I look forward to leading IMDMC as we continue to do good work serving as an advocate, connector, and resource for Indiana’s medical device companies,” said Barnett. 

Other officers elected are as follows: Tom Ryder, President and CEO for Genesis Plastics Welding, will serve as Vice President; Troy Linder, Chief Financial Officer for Fort Wayne Metals, will serve as Treasurer; and Anne Hathaway, Executive Director for IMDMC, will serve as Secretary. 

The organization works to promote, educate, and advocate for Indiana’s medical device industry to advance the performance of our member firms and to cultivate a business environment in which member companies can flourish. IMDMC member companies produce the medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems that are transforming patient care and patient safety. IMDMC members range from the largest to the smallest medical device innovators and companies. For more information, visit www.imdmc.org.

by Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team

One-On-One Virtual Trade Show Experience

Projects don’t stop, production marches on and medical device innovation continues to be needed, now more than ever. With in-person trade shows absent, how do medical device teams continue to network, innovate and fill the collaborative void?

Complimentary expert guidance for your biggest device dilemmas

COVID-19 has certainly made this year challenging. With postponed trade shows across the globe, our team has been thinking outside the box in regards to annual events, collaboration and continuing to fuel innovation within our industry. We’ve pivoted and embraced virtual meetings all year long. Now we are taking that one step further and expanding to offer a personalized virtual one-on-one trade show experience this December to help provide expert guidance for your biggest device dilemmas.

How does it work?

Simple.

First, skip the germs, lines and tacky giveaways. Next, select the appointment timeslot convenient for your schedule. Then, we’ll send a link and you get to ask us anything during your personalized virtual one-on-one trade show experience. Plus, we’ll have product samples for viewing and a virtual tour of our ISO 13485 facility.

We want to hear your team’s pain points

Have a medical device project in its infancy stages and looking for a collaborative design and development or manufacturing partner? Experiencing a hurdle on a current project or generation one product currently in production? Possibly radio frequency process questions? Maybe capacity questions? We’ve got you covered and are ready to answer any and all questions, virtually.

As a collaborative solution provider, our experienced engineering and manufacturing team is well-versed in the manufacture (and assembly) of these in demand medical device products:

  • Fluid, Drainage, Collection, Storage & Feeding Bags
  • Bioprocessing and Cell Culture Bags
  • Surgical Products
  • Temperature Management Devices
  • Infection Prevention Products
  • Respiratory Products and Oxygen Hoods
  • Cryogenic Products

Discuss Your Project Virtually

While nothing can quite replace the in-person interaction of the actual trade show floor, we hope our personalized virtual trade show option can be a welcome substitute as we all navigate the pandemic.

Let’s kick start innovation and your 2021 projects!

We’ve blocked out our calendars for December 1 -3, 2020 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. EST. Click here to email us and snag your spot.

We’re in this together. Now is the time for all of us to be helpers. We’re look forward to continuing to find ways to assist one another to innovate and bring breakthrough medical devices to market.

Related Resources:

by Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team

Medtech Leaders, Researchers: Innovating in a Pandemic

Want to thrive past the pandemic? Act big, bold and fast, say researchers. Slow or incremental change isn’t your friend at the moment, writes McKinsey.

Innovating in a Pandemic

During a recent virtual discussion, McKinsey interviewed a handful of medtech leaders on innovating in the current landscape. Participants included Benoit Clinchamps (president, MicroPort CRM); Anton Kittelberger (CEO, mySugr); Florian Nickels-Teske (director, Helios Health Institute); and Harmut Schaper (CEO and general manager, Security & Safety Things). Joining the discussion were Ralph Dreischmeier and Chris Llewellyn, senior partners at McKinsey.

We’ve captured key themes below. (You can catch the full exchange here.)

Embrace collaboration as an accelerator

“Speed has taken on a completely different dimension,” says Dreischmeier: “Two years of digital transformation is now happening in two months.”

One way to accelerate transformation amid a pandemic is to embrace collaboration. 

“We’re trying to convince [medical device manufacturers] that it’s better to work together, because none of them has the necessary scale for fast [product] innovation,” says Schaper, who recently founded an association where competitors can talk to each other. 

In an earlier post on finding the right partner, we covered a few benefits of joining forces with someone who’s been down the road you want to travel, including: refining ideas, strengthening your value proposition, countering blind spots, reducing risks and uncovering opportunities that would’ve remained hidden otherwise — to mention a few.

Look at what’s working in other industries

If something has worked in another industry, it’s worth taking a look to see if it could work in yours, says Schaper. While you’re at it, “the best thing you can do is turn something that used to be a strength of your competitor into a weakness, like having them cling to this fully integrated stack and experiencing increasing difficulties,” he adds.

Llewellyn agrees: This is one reason why it’s so important to have a diverse team charting the path forward, he says.

Two angles to consider

Clinchamps offers two approaches to building new offerings or business models: (1) the customer-supplier relationship, and (2) technology innovation.

“We develop complex life-sustaining devices and traditionally offered an intensive service to physicians and hospitals to help them implant these devices. But we are trying to change this model,” he explains: “So we’re introducing deeper training for physicians and cardiologists to better understand the products and make it easier for them to implant these devices. Transferring this type of service to hospitals and other parties allows us to do things with fewer people than our competition.”

On the tech innovation front, Clinchamps’ firm is investing big in remote monitoring. “We must avoid overcrowding in hospitals and waiting rooms, as well as unnecessary trips to the doctor. So remote monitoring is far more important than it was before.”

In any case, he recommends staying close to customers to recognize their needs — a vital ingredient we also advocate in your product ideation process.

Beware of perfectionism

The pursuit of perfection is kryptonite to innovation, especially amid a pandemic. 

“If you have this perfect company where everything is planned down to every minute and every portfolio position, you’re not leaving people space to breathe,” says Schaper. For creativity and new discoveries to flourish, people need resources to try things out and they also need to know they won’t be punished for trying something reasonable that fails, he says.

Schaper is not alone in voicing this warning. According to the Harvard Business Review, an undue fixation on launching the perfect product brings costly side effects, including increased costs, longer time to launch, greater potential for risks and FDA scrutiny, psychological turmoil, and more. (More on that here.)

Failure to move now will cost you later

Medtech leaders should be mindful that this is a unique moment in time and the world will be a very different place coming out of this crisis, says Llewellyn. 

“There’s quite a big risk for many players to get left behind, but my sense is that those that act quickly and with conviction will put clear water between them and competitors,” he says. Key to this will be “not being afraid to get it wrong an asking for forgiveness rather than permission.”

In our own experience at Genesis Plastics Welding, as soon as COVID-19 hit, we shifted resources to hyperbaric oxygen hoods to help patients recover from respiratory distress and avoid risks associated with other devices. We also helped manufacturers boost production speed and savings with custom bioprocessing bags. The point is reacting quickly to market changes, anticipating what’s ahead, and wasting no time to act.

The current operating environment, as chaotic as it is, is no excuse for inaction. Quite the opposite, Llewellyn concludes: “I fear those that don’t seize the moment won’t just be left treading water but will be left looking at up the new Goliaths in the industry, saying, ‘How did we miss our opportunity?’”

Innovating in a Pandemic Related Resources:

by Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team

Wearable Devices | What Will We Be “Wearing” in the Next 20 Years?

In 1966 we were in awe of Star Trek’s out-of-this-world mantra to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” And the iconic Spock direction to—Beam me up, Scottie—is still as recognizable now as it was 50-plus years ago. Humans are just drawn to gadgets of any kind. We always have been. Today, we communicate via phone, watch, internet, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and just about a hundred other platforms to stay connected. But in the early 1960s it must have seemed crazy to think that a Combadge could be tapped once to active and twice to deactivate and was used as a universal translator, a distress beacon, and actually added a bit of novelty to the well-known Star Trek uniform.

You might call that 1960s Combadge a wearable device in today’s marketplace. From your Apple watch or personal insulin pump to motion trackers and heart monitors—we are wearing our technology more today than ever. Users and manufacturers are looking for ways to improve the user experience, improve interfaces and data sharing, and constantly on the search for cutting-edge alternatives to monitoring safety, health and wellness.

“The sky’s the limit when it comes to wearable tech in healthcare and potential innovations extend way beyond activity trackers,” Forbes contributor Unity Stoakes writes. “We’re already seeing sensors that improve quality of life, enable home diagnostics, make virtual health and remote monitoring possible, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

So, who is at the bottom of the iceberg to help you take your potential medical device wearable product or concept from the beginning stages of navigation to staking your flag at the top of that icy climb? Read more

by Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team Genesis Plastics Welding Marketing Team

Competitive Edge for Start Up and Small MedDevices

Genesis Plastics Welding Medical Manufacturing

 

Did you know that there are an estimated 6,500 medical device companies in the United States? However, 80% percent of those companies consist of fewer than 50 employees. The large OEMs make up the bulk of the 2 million MedDevice manufacturing jobs nationally. Did you ever wonder how start-ups and small MedDevice companies can remain competitive? They depend highly on collaborative partners to help them innovate and get their products from R&D to market.

Innovation Fuels Medical Device Manufacturing

We know that innovation fuels MedDevice, and a skilled collaborative partner can mean everything in getting products to market quickly and efficiently. Genesis Plastics Welding is proud to support numerous U.S. medical device OEMs, from start-up to large enterprises, with the contract manufacturing of specialty thermoplastic devices that depend on radio frequency welding for durable and leak-proof seams. We value all our clients, but we know for start-ups and small OEMs, we’re indispensable.

Comprehensive Solutions for MedDevice Manufacturing

Genesis Plastics Welding provides comprehensive solutions for medical device manufacturing, from start-ups to large OEMs. As a leading innovator in the plastics welding industry, our team is led by experienced manufacturing professionals that are dedicated to providing the best quality product and the highest level of service.

Why Genesis Plastics Welding R&D Services:

  • Strong project management services
  • Individualized attention
  • Guidance for design for manufacturability
  • A strong quality management system
  • Material selection guidance
  • Solutions for your pain points
  • Supplier collaboration
  • Rapid prototyping

Why Genesis Plastics Welding Contract Manufacturing:

  • Diverse heat sealing capabilities for flexible thin plastics
  • Highly responsive custom service
  • Commitment to quality
  • FDA registered and ISO 13485 certified
  • Supply chain management
  • Meets government contract standards
  • Dedicated to on-time delivery
  • Cleanroom manufacturing capabilities
  • Kitting, assembly, and packaging capabilities

Whether utilizing our R&D or contract manufacturing services, the relationship with our clients is the focal point for our entire team. Our collaborative approach begins with understanding your business needs. From there, it’s all about bringing your innovative ideas to market with an eye on quality, profitability, and sustainability.

Explore Radio Frequency Welded Products Manufactured at Genesis Plastics Welding

Testimonials

We’re always interested in new projects, big or small. Get in touch and let’s chat about your project.