The Future of Drug Delivery Workshop
16th October 2023 | Gothenburg, Sweden
Kestrel Technology Consulting was delighted to be invited to co-present and moderate at the pre-conference workshop on patient-centric design in medical devices in Gothenburg, Sweden. The event was a phenomenal success and gave everyone attending a great deal of discussion and points to consider.
The workshop was a powerful reminder to consider the needs – and the different circumstances – of users when developing medical devices.
As medical device designers it’s important that the devices we design work for their intended users – with all their illnesses and complications and different needs. During the event, we heard from healthcare practitioners at the sharp end, that to a large degree we’re not doing this:
- Displays on insulin pens that diabetics can’t see
- Dosing pen mechanisms that users can’t use
- Dose pumps delivering life-critical medicine that unexpectedly stop working – sometimes due to something as mundane as mobike phone software updates
It’s not good enough.
The first lesson in any product design class is to find out who your users are and what they need. We urgently need to do more of this. Adding complexity and more “gadgets” is counter-productive when people’s lives depend on these devices. They need to be able to trust them – and one size does NOT fit all. This may be inconvenient, but it can’t be ignored.
Event agenda:
| Welcome and Introduction Andy Fry, Team Consulting Cormac O’Prey, Kestrel Technology |
| Topic: Patient Centricity Moderator: John Burke, Team Consulting |
| Patient Experiences Enabled by Technologies Mathias Romacker, Kymanox Transitioning from Transactional Mindset to Collaborative Approach: A Vendor Perspective on Product Development Bart Burgess, SHL |
| Time to Throw Away the Map? The Advantages and Disadvantages of Knowing about the Universe of Pre-Filled Syringes Julian Dixon, AstraZeneca12:00 I Healthcare Professional (HCP) Perspectives on Gaps and Unmet Patient Needs An Observation from an Experienced Diabetes Nurse Christine Cottrell, NHS Wales |
| Interactive Questionnaire SessionModerator: Philippe Lauwers, Terumo |
| Round Table Discussion Time for Hot Topics and Open Questions Moderators: Andy Fry, Team Consulting Mathias Romacker, Kymanox |
| Regulatory Perspective Shannon Hoste, Agilis Moderator: Cormac O’Prey, Kestrel Technology |
| Topic: Enabling Technologies Moderator: Mathias Romacker, Kymanox |
| A Deep Dive into Delivery Technologies: Large Volume Injectors Andrei Yosef, LTS Needle-Free Delivery Patrick Anquetil, Portal Instruments Nasal Delivery Julie Suman, Aptar |
| World Cafe Discussion on Seeded topics Following topics will be evaluated with inputs from the audience When does it make sense to move away from a needle? What barriers are there to adopting new technologies? How can we overcome these? Moderators: Multiple Presenters from the previous Session |
| Summary of the Workshop and Take-Home Messages Andy Fry, Team Consulting Cormac O’Prey, Kestrel Technology |
While there we took advantage of the opportunity to visit the exhibition to understand potential routes to market for microneedle drug delivery solutions as part of project Sonic and helping medical device businesses understand how to transform their businesses to meet sustainability targets.