Article source: Rina Diane Caballar, Engineering NZ Image source: Media from Wix
Medical technology holds the promise of delivering better care and improving patient outcomes through innovative devices, products, service and capabilities. And New Zealand's medical technology sector is booming, thanks in part to clever engineers and clever engineering.
Medical technology is Aotearoa’s biggest secondary industry, generating $1.9 billion in revenue, with med tech firms comprising 11 percent of the nation’s top 200 tech businesses.
Distinguished Professor at the University of Canterbury’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Geoff Chase DistFEngNZ, says New Zealand has unique advantages and “a lot of strength throughout this country in med tech-oriented research”.
“We’re able to directly partner with clinicians in hospitals for faster collaborations, with good ethics guidelines and procedures to enable clinical testing.” He’s part of the neonatal glucose studies team recently awarded the 2021 Prime Minister’s Science Prize for devising new methods to diagnose and treat blood sugar imbalance in newborn babies. He has also worked on a glycaemic control model used in intensive care units in Christchurch hospitals and around the world, as well as a vibration-based imaging system for breast cancer screening, inspired by earthquake engineering principles.