Sustainable Medical Device Design

Dear Colleagues,

Medical device industry is one of the last technological frontiers to embrace sustainability. Its undisputed necessity as a pillar to the growth of modern civilization has enabled it to design and manufacture devices in vast quantities with scant regards to their environmental implications. Our mass consensus to the sterility and efficacy of medical devices have largely justified its current but unsustainable design paradigm. Used and discarded devices are simply reconsigned as biohazard waste. As far as the public eye is concerned, they simply vanished. However their fate, however willing we wish to forget, eventually make itself felt through the ever growing landfills of syringes and gloves, and floating plastics and silicone tubings in our oceans.

With this inaugural special issue and your contribution, we will embark to challenge the tradition and legacy of existing medical device design paradigm. We will highlight the possibility and need for the inclusion of sustainability to the existing design considerations of cost, efficacy, safety and ease of approval.

We welcome original submissions on sustainable designs or improvement of Class I, II and III (US FDA), EN 13795 certified (EU) as well as other certifiable devices, including but not limited to disposable plastic clamps, gloves, packaging, wipes, catheters, implants, suturing tools, insulin pumps and sensors. Clinical data are welcome but not essential for consideration. Materials and device characterization data from companies who have embraced sustainability are also welcome. Opinions or reviews by industry experts, particularly consultation firms, will also be considered.

References:

Shao, J.; Li, K.H.H.; Son, A.; Chua, B. (2020) Self-powered insulin patch pump with superabsorbent polymer as biodegradable battery substitute, Journal of Materials Chemistry B, doi.org/10.1039/D0TB00385A

Lee, D.; Chua, B. (2019) Gummy bear-based gnathodynamometer for masticatory diagnostics, Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 290, pp. 80-89

Matsuda, Y.; Sakai, K.; Yamaguchi, H.; Niimi, T.(2019) Electrophoretic separation on an origami paper-based analytical device using a portable power bank,  Sensors, 19, pp. 1724

Smith, S.; Korvink, J.G.; Mager, D.; Land, K. (2018) The potential of paper-based diagnostics to meet the ASSURED criteria, RSC Adv., 8, pp. 34012-34034

Dr. Beelee Chua
Prof. Dr. David C.K. Ng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• diagnostics
• therapeutics
• intervention
• implantables
• wearable
• biodegradable
• disposable
• paper based
• reusable
• sterilization techniques
• biomaterials
• 3D printed
• green packaging
• self-cleaning