Smaller, Safer Medical Devices Require a Next Generation Thermal System

Home medical devices must meet higher safety standards. Thermal solutions can improve performance and meet those standards, but they will need to be designed using a system approach.

Healthcare organisations are increasingly moving patients to home care settings to reduce the burden on traditional healthcare facilities, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been a double-edged sword: On the one hand, it has meant a boom in the market for certain home medical devices. On the other hand, it has also led to greater scrutiny of devices and increasingly stringent safety standards.

Meeting these safety standards is sometimes possible with traditional technology, but that technology adds to both the bulk and the cost of medical devices. Device manufacturers understandably want to make devices that are smaller, cheaper and easier to use - goals that are often at odds with safety compliance measures.

This is an area where innovation in thermal solutions, including heaters, sensors, temperature controllers, power controllers and supporting software working together as an integrated system, can make a difference.