Bringing a new healthcare product to market is a race against time in a very regulated environment. Innovation is key. But so is speed. Unique ideas, painstaking research, effective trials, and even safe, fully approved products will mean little if someone else gets there first.

Medical device design poses some of the industry’s biggest engineering challenges. There are no shortcuts in navigating through the four stages of the product development process: concept, systems-level and detailed design, testing and refinement, and approval.

Engineering simulation is a technology widely used by medical device developers to design, optimize, manufacture and virtually test ideas — speeding your product through FDA approval to the market and delivering a fast return on investment.

The Medical Device Virtual Development Forum brings together visionaries from leading organizations to debate how companies in the medical device industry realize their product promise through use of simulation in the
product development process.

Highlights:

• Lectures from industry experts on the growing importance of engineering simulation in the biomedical area, accelerating the product development process and industry best practices
• Roundtable discussions on how simulation can increase throughput of new products, including identifying bottlenecks, reducing time to market, amplifying existing engineering force and unleashing safe reactivity

Attend this event to see how members of the medical community are turning ideas into successes, leveraging the value of innovation throughout the entire development process.

Who Should Attend?

• This event is intended for directors and VPs of engineering as well as C-level executives.

08:30 – 09:00   Registration and Breakfast

09:00 – 09:25   The In-Silico Revolution, presented by Dr. Shuvo Roy, University of California, San Francisco

09:25 – 09:45   Accelerating Product Development Process for Medical Devices, presented by Thierry Marchal, ANSYS, Inc.

09:45 – 10:15   Good Practices for Simulation-Driven Product Development, presented by Marc Horner, ANSYS, Inc.

10:15 -10:30   Break*

10:30 – 11:45   Round Table Discussion

11:45 – 12:00   Closing Remarks*

http://www.ansys.com/medical/los+angeles

Professor V.G.J.Rodgers, UC Riverside

Traumatic brain injuries contribute to a third of all injury-related deaths in the United States. While the primary damage occurs at the time of injury, doctors also have to mitigate the secondary disease processes — including brain swelling — that occur after a traumatic brain injury.  Cerebral edema, an increase in the water content of brain tissue, can be caused by brain injury, stroke, infections and brain tumors. That swelling can lead to pressure that reduces blood flow to the brain, even to the point of death.  To prevent this, Professor Rodgers’ group is developing a treatment to remove water from the brain, an osmotic water extraction device.  This work could have broad implications not only for shooting victims like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, but for veterans and anyone with traumatic brain injuries.

Professor Victor G. J. Rodgers

Dr. Rodgers is Professor of Bioengineering at University of California, Riverside.  Over his long and distinguished career, Dr. Rodgers has attained numerous honors, including Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Graduate Faculty Member, Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Iowa.

Dr. Rodgers’ research group at UC Riverside uses the fundamental principles of transport phenomena, reaction engineering kinetics and thermodynamics to investigate and develop exciting areas in biomedical engineering and bioseparations.  The group’s research focuses on five broad areas; artificial organs, bioreaction kinetics, drug delivery, bioseparations, and thermodynamics of crowded proteins.

Because of the interdisciplinary elements of this work, Dr. Rodgers’ graduates develop their talents in both mathematical and experimental analysis and enhance their communication skills to successfully work with colleagues in the life-sciences.

Location:	California Lutheran University 60 West Olson Road, Thousand Oaks
Dinner:	In the Atrium of the Ahmanson Science Building, available at 6 p.m. for $10 payable at the door, no RSVP needed.
Lecture:	Nearby, at 7 p.m. Come to Ahmanson beforehand for directions. Meetings are free, open to the public
Parking:	In general, visitor Parking is no longer permitted before 7 p.m. on Memorial Parkway and adjacent streets. However, CLU Public Safety has provided us with parking passes to download and use.
Contact:	Abigail Corrin, acorrin@clunet.edu

Date:                Friday, Friday, March 30
Time:                5 – 7 p.m. (refreshments served at 5 p.m.)
Location:         HMRI Research Conference Hall, 734 Fairmount Ave., Pasadena, CA 91105
Parking:           $6 in the garage at Congress and Fairmount Streets
Cost:                Free
RSVP:              Register online at www.hmri.org

Eminent neural engineering researcher Dr. McCreery will discuss the use of implantable electrodes that send electrical impulses to the brain and spinal cord. Research in microstimulation led to the development of the vagus nerve electrode that helped more than 30,000 people with epilepsy and the deep brain stimulator that has assisted over 50,000 patients for the management of Parkinson’s Disease. The presentation will be followed by a Q & A session.

Dr. Douglas McCreery, HMRI

This event is part of Huntington Medical Research Institutes’ New Hope for Medicine seminars.

Doug McCreery attended the University of Connecticut, and received his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. After graduating, he worked for the US Navy before returning to the University of Connecticut, where received his Doctorate in Biomedical Engineering. He completed his post-doctoral studies in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Minnesota School of medicine in Minneapolis, before coming to HMRI in 1979. His research interests include the development of neuroprostheses and devices for neuromodulation for the central nervous system, and the effects of electrical stimulation on the tissues of the central and peripheral nervous systems.

In June of 2001, he became the Director of HMRI’s Neural Engineering program.  He participated in the development of the vagus nerve stimulating electrode which has helped more than 30,000 people afflicted with epilepsy. The research conducted by Doug and his colleagues have has been instrumental to defining procedures and criteria for safe therapeutic electrical stimulation of neural tissue, and these data have been used by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to certify several implantable medical devices, including the deep brain stimulator manufactured by Medtronic, Inc., which has been implanted into more than 50,000 patients for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease.

In the past few years, Doug and his colleagues in the Neural Engineering program have emphasized the design and development of systems for microstimulation of the brain and spinal cord. This technology, which entails implanting microelectrodes directly into the neural tissue, provides a means of accessing the fine organizational structure of the brain and spinal cord.

Since joining HMRI, Doug has been the principal Investigator or co-principal investigator of 18 research grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health. He is the principal author or a co-author of 62 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 7 book chapters.

HMRI was founded in 1952 with the goal of developing knowledge and technology to change the way physicians diagnose and treat diseases.  HMRI is the product of multiple roots, including the Institute of Medical Research at Huntington Hospital, the Pasadena Neurovascular Foundation, the Huntington Institute of Applied Medical Research and the Pasadena Foundation for Medical Research.

Prof. Andrzej Bieszczad is Associate Professor, and Director of Master Program in the Computer Science Program at California State University Channel Islands.  He received his PhD in Systems and Computer Engineering in 1996 at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.  His research interests include artificial and computational intelligence, networking, and game programming.

Assistive and rehabilitative technology is an emerging discipline focused on improving the functional capabilities of those who utilize assistive technology devices. Engineering experts create the devices that enable these individuals to function not only in healthcare settings but also in educational and corporate environments where their participation is critical to fulfilling the ultimate goal of making accessibility universal.  CSUN’s master’s degree in Assistive Technology Engineering is a program that enables students 
who are focused on the engineering, design and manufacture of assistive technology devices to study and collaborate with students whose focus is 
on assistive technology assessment, advocacy and counseling, i.e., the “human services” side of the equation.

Benjamin Mallard, M.S.E.E.

Benjamin Mallard is a lecturer in CSUN’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He came to the CSUN faculty with 15 years of industrial experience, which included working as a microelectronic circuit design engineer at TRW Defense and Space Systems and as an engineer specialist at Northrop Corporation. As an instructor for more than 15 years, Mr. Mallard has taught subjects covering solid-state devices, introductory circuit and network theory, electronics and data-acquisition architectures. His areas of interest include high-speed data converters, biosensors, bioinstrumentation, wideband amplifiers, low-power electronics and nanotechnology. Mr. Mallard holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. He co-teaches Product Design and Development for Assistive Technology (ATE 607) and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ATE 608).

Meeting Site:	California Lutheran University 60 West Olson Road, Thousand Oaks Meetings are free, open to the public
Dinner:	100 Ahmanson Science Building.Available at 6 p.m. for $10 payable at the door, no RSVP needed.
Parking (Changed):	In general, visitor Parking is no longer permitted before 7 p.m. on Memorial Pkwy and adjacent street.  However, CLU Public Safety has provided us with parking passes to download and use.
Contact:	Abigail Corrin, acorrin@clunet.edu
Our Sponsors:	California Lutheran University, IEEE EMB Society, Alfred Mann Institute, MicroJoining Solutions, IEEE Buenaventura Section, Amgen Foundation

We will discuss how to prepare for your next job hunt, whenever it will occur.

Dr. Janet Oldak - USC

Tooth enamel has remarkable resistance to wear and tear that isn’t quite matched by materials currently used for dental repair and restoration, but researchers at the USC School of Dentistry’s Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology have taken a promising step toward one day recreating natural enamel on tooth surfaces.  The goal of reconstructing enamel on teeth surface is an especially unique challenge, as enamel mineralization is an extracellular process that can’t simply be bioengineered with specialized cell lines or other common biological approaches. This is particularly because the development of enamel-making cells is intimately related to the development of underlying dentin tissue.  Synthetic enamel would be an attractive option compared to amalgam or composite for patients looking to repair tooth decay or damage and regain the original strength of their teeth.

Janet Moradian-Oldak is an expert on tooth enamel formation and structural biology, with a focus on protein/crystal interactions, enamel proteins and proteinases, apatite crystal growth, enamel formation and biomineralization, the molecular biology of amelogenin, and structural biology. She is an Associate professor at USC’s Ostrow School of Dentistry. She received her PhD in Structural Biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel

Location:	California Lutheran University 60 West Olson Road, Thousand Oaks
Dinner:	In the Atrium of the Ahmanson Science Building, available at 6 p.m. for $10 payable at the door, no RSVP needed.
Lecture:	Nearby, at 7 p.m. Come to Ahmanson beforehand for directions. Meetings are free, open to the public
Parking:	In general, visitor Parking is no longer permitted before 7 p.m. on Memorial Parkway and adjacent streets. However, CLU Public Safety has provided us with parking passes to download and use.
Contact:	Abigail Corrin, acorrin@clunet.edu