A Structured Approach to Medical Technology Innovation

The recent decline in the values of technology stocks and the increased focus on a company’s short term earnings has led to increased demand for premium-value products. Innovative product or technology development has been shown to be one of the key drivers behind premium-value technology or products (PVTP) and successful organisations (Packard 1995; Peters & Waterman 1984; Slater 1999; Stross 1996; Welch 2001b) . This paper suggests a structured approach for the innovation of new medical technology, which is modelled on the integration of human physiological systems. Introduction The ever-increasing worldwide competition in medical technology markets continues to erode enduser prices, increase end-user expectations, and demand products with a differentiating edge. It is evident that the role of innovation and invention is becoming increasingly important. This paper reviews conventional structures, systems and processes, and discusses “The Convergence System”, as a new structured approach to innovation. Innovation has been reported as a key factor behind some or the world’s most successful organisations(Packard1995; Slater1999; Stross1996), excellent organisations (Peters & Waterman1984), and organisations who have demonstrated enduring success(Slater1999; Stross1996). Systematic and structured approaches have been applied to successfully improve many aspects of business including overall project costs, project costing and schedule estimations, product quality and consistency (Walton & Deming 1986), software processes (Boehm & DeMarco1997; Humphrey & Ferguson1997; Humphrey & Snyder1991) and breakthough performance initiatives (Snee & Hoel2003). Despite the reported value of innovation within an organisation, there appears to be limited evidence of systems, models, structures and processes focussed upon enhancing innovative and inventive technology development. Models of Innovation A literature review was conducted showing that an abundance of publications (2810) were reported with the search criteria of “design process” versus a significantly smaller number of publications (150) reported using “innovation process” as the search criteria. In the literature on innovation, innovation has been reported as a significant value differentiator by the world’s largest and most successful company leaders (Morgenson1997; Packard1995; Peters & Waterman1984; Robert 1993; Slater1999; Stross1996; Welch 2001a). The importance of innovation as a driver for commercial success within an organisation has been demonstrated and documented. (Peters & Waterman1984)presented a survey to a number of America’s best run companies including high technology companies Digital Equipment, Emerson Electric, Gould, Hewlett-Packard, International Business Machines, NCR, Rockwell, Schlumberger, Texas Instruments, United Technologies, Western Electric, Westinghouse and Xerox. One of the common traits amongst these companies was the existence of a strong spirit of innovation. While a number of these companies have merged to form new conglomerates, these organisations appear to have successfully embraced the ability to sustain a competitive edge by way of innovative and inventive PVTP. Companies such as 3M were described as being “so intent on innovation that its essential atmosphere seems not like that of a large organisation but rather a loose network of laboratories and cubby-holes populated by feverish inventors and dauntless entrepreneurs who let their imaginations fly in all directions (Peters & Waterman1984).” Companies such as Bell labs conducted such a large amount of research that it could afford some very high-risk programs, often referred to as blue-sky thinking. Discoveries