Howard M. Tanner FRSA
Endo Vascular Associates, a medical device startup was established to develop a minimally invasive procedure and related hardware to treat Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA)…the 13th largest killer of US citizens…and to bring the resulting ‘system’ to market. Our consultancy was engaged to assist this effort.
Collaborating with EVA’s peripheral vascular surgeon, H. Trout MD. and his associates we performed an expansive subject literature search re: causative disease process/pros-cons of current surgical approaches and observed surgeries. Our report detailed the • effectiveness/relevance of current treatment modalities • possible alternative approaches/technologies • windows of opportunity for an alternative approach.
Guided by these findings, consultancy led the program…project inception to successful FDA monitored animal trials…and in doing so discovered a unique, beneficial, patentable surgical approach and concurrently, related hardware solutions. A 2nd generation product development group continued the program’s advancement towards human trials.
Contributions:
Subject Matter Research • Concept Exploration • Technology Evaluation • Product Design/Visualizations/Documentation/ Prototyping/Evaluation • Development to FDA Trials • Material/ Processing/Finish Specification
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Hobbyist Hand Tool
Bosch-Dremel, a developer/producer of DIY hand tools contracted with Spark Creative to aid creation of the subject Stylus product. It was anticipated that the chargeable device hardware would be aligned linearly about a central axis. An initial product review suggested that the client defined product would be ill-balanced and cumbersome in use. With client engineering oversite we developed a revolutionary device that:
• comprised an ergonomic housing providing optimized hardware placement/securement
• positioned the device gearbox/drive mechanism clutch in axial alignment
• positioned the batteries in the palm of the user’s hand within concept’s hand grip detailing
• incorporated a sliding mechanism that enabled the simple exchange of device tools while simultaneously preventing activation of the device
• conveniently positioned all controls within the user’s grasp
Contributions:
Product Review • Concept Generation/Visualizations • Product Development/Documentation • Prototyping/Testing overview • Material/Processing/Finish Specification
