Events Calendar
What Makes Medical Technology Work?
Thursday March 6, 2014
5:00 pm
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Presenter: |
Kenneth R. Foster, Professor of Bioengineering,
University of Pennsylvania |
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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. |
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Host: | Harjit Ahluwalia | |
Location: | Room C, UNM Conference Center | |