Just like alcohol monitoring, creating new patient monitoring equipment for commercial use requires you to develop the complete design of a device for medical use, and have it approved by the FDA.
Companies like DeviceLab specialize in developing hospital grade medical equipment for use by patients and doctors that is streamlined, easy to implement, and highly adaptable. Novices in the industry can take up majors like engineering, or they can go the route of independent invention.
Whether you design your patient monitoring equipment at home in your workshop or alongside engineers in a laboratory, your creation has to improve upon what’s already prominent in the market, or introduce a piece of equipment that is compellingly different.
What’s in Patient Monitoring Equipment Anyway?
Motors, wires, motherboards, microchips, touchscreen displays – the components of patient monitoring equipment are largely the same. Surprisingly, do-it-yourself medical equipment hackers can be the very same doctors that would give you medical attention during an emergency or a routine medical examination.
Many things have changed in the medical community, from diagnostic equipment design to patient displays. Before you can design it, you have to know what it is that you are trying to accomplish. Many designers get their start by taking apart old equipment in an effort to fix it, or make it even better.
School of Thought – Education, Careers, and Implementation
Medical equipment in general is created by those who use it on a daily basis in the practice, as well as professional designers, engineers and innovators. Some people go to school for years just to have the opportunity to develop new patient monitor equipment as a living.
Other designers are self taught, with some being patients and accidental medical inventors. Seeing a new piece of patient monitoring equipment make it to the commercial implementation stage requires both a strong resolve and resilience.
Working on Marketable Patient Monitoring Equipment Full Time
If you decide that designing patient monitoring equipment is something that you’d like to pursue full time, an educational background can be helpful. Whether you decide to go directly into medicine or come to the industry by way of design engineering, a career spent coming up with new diagnostic equipment designs is an exciting endeavor. In the end, you’ll need a plan for convincing medical equipment manufacturers that your inventions are cutting edge.
After understanding how all of the various medical device interfaces work, designing patient monitoring equipment doesn’t seem as foreign a concept. Basic development begins with hacking, adjusting or otherwise converting existing patient monitoring equipment.
Seeing how each component works under the surface will help you in designing an improved interface, with an aesthetic that is all your own. Designing patient monitoring equipment and successfully commercially manufacturing, and selling said equipment aren’t always going to happen in succession.
Some designs are much more commercially successful than others, meaning that many of your innovative medical inventions will not be used in healthcare settings. If you have a passion for creating things, designing patient monitoring equipment can be a fun way to fulfill your life dreams.