Innovating healthcare: smarter, more cost-effective medical devices

Medical device technologies have enormous potential impact in terms of their ability to help fight diseases and improve the quality of life for patients, as well as delivering cost savings for health services.

Scotland’s Life Sciences sector is on track to turnover more than £8 billion by 2025, but one of the biggest challenges that small and medium sized companies (SMEs) working in this sector currently face is access to specialist manufacturing capability. To translate their game-changing innovations, into devices that can be more quickly adopted for the benefit of patient care, these SMEs need expert support.

The Medical Device Manufacturing Centre (MDMC) – a first-of-its-kind facility in Scotland – has been developed to provide an impactful solution to this challenge. An integrated framework of expert advice on manufacturing engineering, regulatory issues and funding, coupled with technically supported access to manufacturing facilities, it assists companies in the translation of medical device concepts through the journey to clinical trials.

Leading medical device manufacturing through concentrated collaboration

The MDMC is a consortium of institutions, headquartered at Heriot-Watt University, and includes the University of Edinburgh, the University of Glasgow, Robert Gordon University, and most recently the University of Dundee. It brings together engineers, scientists, clinicians, and business development experts from these universities, as well as championing strategic partnerships such as that with Technology Scotland, to act as a powerful catalyst for Scotland’s biomedical sector.

Since launching in 2020 on Heriot-Watt’s Edinburgh campus, the MDMC has interacted with over 170 Scottish MedTech companies, and provided direct assistance to more than 40 of these, helping them to move from concept to prototype and beyond. Access to MDMC’s facilities and expertise can shave up to eight months off development timelines and help innovators to secure significant investment as well.

Focused on developing solutions to pressing clinical needs, examples of supported companies include Confidence Plus which makes a device to prevent stoma bag leaks; the additive manufacturing specialist, Abergower, which developed a new manufacturing facility to mass produce 3D printed COVID-19 testing microfluidic swabs; FlexMedical Solutions which is developing point of care diagnostics; and Emblation, which is revolutionising the way microwave energy is used in healthcare.

The MDMC was initially funded by £3.7million from the Advancing Manufacturing Challenge Fund, the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal, and the partner universities. More recently it been awarded an additional investment of £3.35million from Scottish Enterprise, together with £8.7million from the universities to deliver expanded services to Scottish companies up to 30 June 2026.

Providing access to expertise to fast-track development of smart devices

The many years of experience in manufacturing and medical device research of the partner universities makes the MDMC a place of concentrated expertise across the whole spectrum of challenges that exist in medical technology development.

The support it provides helps innovative Scottish companies to address obstacles to impact, such as prototyping and testing, which are expensive processes, while its state-of-the-art facilities help device developers and manufacturers to translate medical device concepts into small batch commercial prototypes.

Access to expertise in data capture, for example, can make a significant difference, because it is a crucial aspect to understanding the manufacturing process and the means by which adjustments can be made to correct and improve the process.

The newly added Thiel Cadaver facility at the University of Dundee offers a novel and revolutionary experience for testing innovative medical devices in human material that can be ventilated, sutured, perfused, or insufflated, thus closely simulating a living person.

Boosting sustainability

Importantly, some of the MDMC’s new funding will support the development of more sustainable and environmentally sensitive manufacturing processes. Sustainability targets in the NHS will become more stringent over the coming years, so it is essential that possibilities – such as the inclusion and development of degradable or reusable polymers which have a reduced environmental impact – are explored, to help cut the industry’s carbon footprint.

Embedding sustainable principles into medical device manufacturing from the outset will also save companies money; redesigning products after manufacturing to meet sustainability goals is a costly and time-consuming process, which can delay getting tech to the marketplace and end users.

High level knowledge exchange accelerates impact

The MDMC is a unique university-business collaboration and knowledge exchange model. Beyond the direct support it provides to medical device companies, it seeks to bring together key players from industry, NHS, and academia for dynamic discussions on the cutting-edge services shaping the life sciences and healthcare sector, through for example, its annual conference and on-going knowledge exchange opportunities.

The close relationship with Heriot-Watt’s new institute for health and care technologies will help to intensify collaboration between business and research, and expand the MDMC’s support of smart, scalable, medical technology businesses and its impact on Scotland’s economy and beyond.