Surge in medical embedded systems

[charlesmanning]

I subscribe to the Embedded.com newsletter. Mostly I find this just
press releases and other drivel, IMHO, but there are enough pearls now
and then to make it worth reading.

This week there is an interesting article on the surge in medical
embedded systems to cater for the aging baby boomers. Looks like some
big opportunities out there.

Cut and paste from news letter:


ESC SILICON VALLEY 2010 SPECIAL EDITION: MEDICAL APPLICATIONS
Medical electronics is one of the fastest growing segments in the
embedded space. This is in large part due to the massive venture
capital investment in medical devices (almost $4B last year) to serve
the aging baby-boomer population.

With additional stimulus dollars flowing in for health care, this
segment of the embedded systems market has been a bright spot in an
otherwise dismal downturn, a path to money for companies and
developers who have the capabilities, and patience, to deal with the
needs of medical designs.

“Medical Design: Under My Skin,” by Jean-Daniel Richerd, R. Srinivasan
and Matthew Reich, lays out the case that designing a system for the
medical space carries with it some stringent and specific
requirements. For example, in many cases, those products must be
simple enough to be used by the general public. In other cases, they
may have to be used in the field for varying lengths of time without
access to a power recharge. Well illustrated in “Applying static
analysis to medical device software,” and “Build safety critical
designs with UML-based fault tree analysis,” in all cases medical
hardware and software must pass stringent tests by various governing
bodies, including the FDA.

To help embedded designers develop the skills and knowledge to
participate in this segment of the embedded market, at the upcoming
ESC Spring 2010 next week there is an entire track of classes devoted
to medical hardware and software design, including: “Authentication
and Usage Information for Disposable Medical Accessories (ESC-407)”
taught by Jonathan Dillon, “Design standards for connected personal
health devices (ESC-427), and “Medical devices in the MICS band
(ESC-467),” from Jonathan Dillon. Good reading and see you at the
show! (EMBEDDED.COM EDITOR BERNARD COLE, BCC...@ACM.ORG)



Whether UML etc really does generate better designs or whether it just
gives some nice pictures so that management and lawyers can show they
were not negligent is perhaps a discussion best left for philosophy
sessions down at the pub.

-- CHarles


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