ice
dapted
arios
ving tissue interact
reflections on medical
The ubiquity of medtech
The development of medical devices
during the past 20 years has been a real
success story. The medtech realm repre-
sents, by far, the largest number of patent
applications submitted to the European
Patent Office in Strasbourg, France. In
2006 alone, 15 723 medtech-related
patents were submitted, exceeding the
number of patents filed for other innova-
tive sectors such as telecommunications or
the automotive industry. The innovative
power of medical technology has resulted
in more efficient treatments and better
therapies. In 2003, the British Medical
Journal reported that “… advances in
medical technology account for a third of
the reduction in road traffic deaths.”1
FIGURE 1: Biomaterials development in medical device technology.
device, intended to interact with biological
systems.” 2 Recent innovations and a better
understanding of the underlying mecha-
nisms of interaction between biomaterials
and living tissue have led to a more com-
plex, but possibly more precise, defini-
tion of a biomaterial, which opens new
perspectives for individualised therapeutic
applications. The following definition is
suggested as a basis for the establishment
of a consensus definition:
“A biomaterial is a technically fabri-
cated state of matter, usually a solid of
defined structure, surface properties and
function for a species-adapted biocompat-
ible interaction with living organisms.” 3
Polymers
Definition and analysis of
biomechanics and functions
1970
Period of understanding
Period of
parameters
1990 2010
Period of
quality
2030
The period of understanding
When describing the advances of biomaterial applications in medical devices, three
major steps or developmental periods can
be observed (Figure 1).
In the early days of biomaterial application, research and development mainly
focused on identifying appropriate polymers. Empirical analyses of biomechanics
