Jump To Date
View By Semester
View By Series
Add An Event


Center for Astrophysics Research and Technologies Seminar Series Information

 

Events Calendar

What Makes Medical Technology Work?

Thursday March 6, 2014
5:00 pm


 Presenter:  Kenneth R. Foster, Professor of Bioengineering,
University of Pennsylvania
 Series:  Sigma Xi Public Talk
 Abstract:  The complex interplay between the development of technology as seen by engineers, and the medical, regulatory, and economic factors that  determine success is frequently overlooked by engineers. And the 
consequences can be very expensive. I consider three cases that illustrate the problem. The first is infrared imaging of the breast for screening for cancer. The technique provides highly sensitive (in an engineering sense) and detailed thermal images of the breast but, after decades of work and premarket approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the technique has never succeeded medically or  commercially. The second is the role of smartphone apps in medicine. The FDA has recently stated its intention to regulate some apps as medical devices and subject to the FDA's premarket approval process -which could introduce a standard of proof of safety and efficacy that few app developers could meet. A final example is the order in September 2013 by the FDA preventing the marketing of a popular 
genetic testing service (23andme.com). These technologies all work in a technical sense, but making them work in the real world of medicine, regulation, and economics is a different matter entirely.
 Host:  Harjit Ahluwalia
 Location:  Room C, UNM Conference Center

Disability Notice If you need an auxiliary aid or service to attend any Department of Physics and Astronomy event, please contact the department (phone: 505 277-2616; email: physics@unm.edu) as far in advance as possible to ensure you are accommodated.