Medtronic to invest in device design
Medtronic clearly sees a lot of revenue potential in future devices. According to Reuters, they are planning to spend 35% more this year on their next generation of diabetes devices. According to the article they want to make thesesimpler to use and more effective in managing the diseaseI do hope they also consider other design aspects like the fun factor and how they look. Ease of use is definitely important, but I'd also like a device package that doesn't necessarily look like another mobile phone. I'd also like to move away from the Henry Ford-like approach to diabetes devices. "You can have that in any color as long as it's black or blue".
As a long-time Minimed pump user, I moved to a Cozmo last year because I just didn't see any innovation in what Minimed were doing. The design of the sensor for their CGMS is just plain ugly and way too large.
Do you want proof? See klil's picture from the Diabetes 365 project. How did they manage to make something this big? Have they checked out what Dexcom managed to do?Despite my cynicism, I think this commitment from Minimed is a good thing. They're the big dog of diabetes devices and if their additional spending produces innovative designs, it's a sure thing that competitors and start-up companies will take up the challenge.
While I'm talking about device design, I hope you've had a chance to see Amy's post about the recent DiabetesMine design contest.
Labels: design, devices, Medtronic, Minimed
posted by Bernard @ 12:06 PM
4 Comments:
Let's not forget software that is cool and uses a common data set.
http://diabetesdata.pbwiki.com/
Medtronic made $2.5 billion in 2007, this is a small investment to protect a business that has come under increasing pressure due to competition in the market. Consider that in 1992, there was only Minimed (Medtronic hadn't bought the company yet) and Disetronic (now owned by Roche). Today we also have Animas/Johnson & Johnson, Smiths Medical, Insulet, as well as Sooil from South Korea and Nipro from Japan. Clearly, competition benefits everyone with lower prices and better products.
Its kind of ironic and sad that the U.S. actually has the same number of insulin manufacturers today, isn't it -- its not because their products don't need improvements or cost reductions!
Ouch. My MiniLink looked like that too, sometimes.
Hooray for investment in improved device design!
Maybe Minimed could work on a way to make their products affordable to more than 19 people while they're at it.
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