DIGITAL SYSTEMS FOR THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY

NOTE: Information for this post came from the following sources: 1.)  “Medical Product Outsourcing” April 2022 and 2.) “ACDi Consulting”.

One of the greatest applications for digital systems may be found in the healthcare industry.  Printed Circuit Boards or PCBs are the heart of these systems.  The development of PCBs is a story of evolution and not revolution.  Let’s take a look.   

PCBs

One of the most common components in electronic devices today, printed circuit boards (PCBs) have come a long way since their introduction in the early 1900s. Very hard for me to believe this all started as early as the 1900s but that’s the case.  Rising consumer demand and expectations for increased speed, functionality, features and miniaturization has driven much of this change. Consumers today expect their electronic devices to respond instantly, creating unique challenges for electronics designers.  This is certainly true with the application of the printed circuit board.  PCBs must act properly or lives may be at stake.   This is not only true for healthcare, but for any application in which PCs are installed.

Patented in 1925 by Charles Ducas, “printed wire” involved creating an electrical path directly on an insulated surface. While the concept completely eliminated the need for complex wiring, it wasn’t until 1943 that the first operational PCBs were constructed in Austria by Dr. Paul Eisler.

During the 1920s, developers constructed printed circuit boards from everyday materials like Bakelite, Masonite, layered cardboard and even thin pieces of wood. They would drill holes into the material and rivet or bolt flat brass wires onto the board. They made connections to various components by pressing the end of the brass trace onto the hollow rivet while pressing the component’s leads into the open end of the rivet. Although this didn’t create anything like the sleek, attractive and complex boards seen today, this process provided consistent results and these types of circuit boards were commonly used in gramophones and early tube-style radios.

As electricity came to homes across the country, the shift from coal, wood and oil brought unique possibilities. Homeowners around the country accepted this change readily. After all, it was much easier and cleaner to cook and heat their homes with electricity.  During this time, Standard Oil, the company responsible for supplying the oil used for cooking and lighting households around the U.S. had to find a new purpose for its oil. This happened with the introduction of the automobile.

In 1947, production on the first double-sided PCB began. This unique design included through-hole plating, which allowed developers to use both sides of the printed circuit board. Copper plating on the through hole enabled electrical conductivity to travel through the board.  

In 1949, Moe Abramson and Stanislaus F. Danko, members of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, developed the first PCB auto-assembly process and forever changed the way that PCBs were made. The process involved using a copper foil interconnection pattern and dip soldering technology to insert component leads onto the board. In order to create the boards, developers drew the wiring pattern and photographed it onto a zinc plate. They then created a printing plate with the zinc plate for an offset printing press. Moe Abramson and Stainslaus F. Danko patented this process in 1956.

DIGITAL HEALTHCARE:

Now relative to the healthcare industry, 2021 was the biggest year for digital health investment ever recorded.  Globally, more that forty-four (44) billion U.S. dollars was invested in nine hundred and ninety (990) digital health companies, according to the organization called StartUp Health.  Only a decade earlier, roughly two (2) billion dollars was invested in digital health. Since 2011, there has been more than a twenty-fold increase in annual global investment in digital health funding.  Think about that! 

Among U.S.-based health startups, the total funding in 2011 was twenty-nine (29) billion USD, across seven hundred and twenty-nine (729) transactions, with an average investment worth approximately forty (40) million dollars according to Rock Health.  Overall U.S.-based digital health startup investment nearly doubled from a record fifteen (15) billion USD in 2020.  These huge numbers demonstrate the attractiveness of digital health systems going towards digital technology solutions for equipment and services.  A great portion of that funding is for non-evasive medical diagnostic devices saving the patient and the medical practitioners time and supposedly money.

With that being the case, as more and more medical devices join the connected world, patent protection becomes increasingly important for companies in securing and maintaining competitive market advantage.   Patents are critical for companies of all sizes with digital healthcare innovations. For startup companies, patents are very often the only way for investors to place a value on their technologies.  Because of this, patents make up for a much more significant portion of enterprise value for any startup company.   As a company grows, patents become the currency that secures financing through venture capital or private equity investment.  Patents also can ensure trade secrets remain secrets. 

CONCLUSION:  The digital evolution affects just about every field of technology and certainly the healthcare industry.  Just imagine what the world would be like without PC technology.