STUTTGART, Germany – Whatever the medical device, whether for complex surgeries or simple point of care, moving from the lab to the market as quickly as possible is the overriding imperative.

A revolution in reducing time to market came with 3-D computer-assisted design (CAD) seven years ago that allowed faster one-time modeling of complex components and brought together upstream designers with downstream production teams.

But today pure economic incentives are accelerating time to market for products across the board due to the ready acceptance by a fast-growing healthcare industry and the competitive advantages inherent in being the first to make, or disrupt, a market with a novel application.

At MedTec 2008, held in the new Stuttgart Landemesse last week, more than 35 firms were on hand to help product designers launch projects, and according to an industry study presented during a conference session, this service sector is growing faster than the rate of growth for the medical device industry as a whole.

Most companies promoting project services are actually contract manufacturers ranging from generalists to one-trick metal bashers and plastic molders. Outsource engineering boutiques with a specialty for microelecronics or microfluidics also were promoting themselves as one-stop shops for full project development.

But the breadth and depth of services offered by two groups help illustrate the complexity faced by potential customers.

Internal project development groups from Smith & Nephew (York, UK) and Royal Philips Electronics (Eindoven, the Netherlands) came to the MedTec event for the first time to seek external clients.

A potential customer for these groups has a core expertise for a novel science but lacks the wider sets of skills needed to bring a product to market, whether for project management, production systems architects, or specialists for complementary sciences such as electrical, biomechanics, biology or chemistry that will be needed for the final medical device platform.

Robert Peter Ijff, director of the healthcare segment with Philips, said his group accounts for one-fourth of the activity for the applied technologies group at Philips, adding that the recent upswing in medical device development encouraged a more aggressive campaign for external clients.

“If I tell you the rate of growth for my business segment, you will not believe it, so I will be careful and tell you it is 30%,” he said, adding that internally the target is “not less than 50% for this year.”

Philips is straightforward with its approach, called “Fast Device Creation,” and Ijff said his promise to clients is a 50% reduction in time to market and a 30% reduction in costs.

“It is more than a sales pitch, this is the market requirement,” he said.

In the pharmacy industry it is common to outsource development, said Ijff, and it is more common now for the bigger medical device makers.

“But there is opportunity on the other end of the market with start-ups,” he said. These companies often have some significant intellectual property, but not muc more.”

Philips offers four case studies to illustrate the process of outsourcing product development, two from internal projects and two for external customers.

The headline project is an ultra-fast gantry for computed tomography (CT) able to scan the heart during the 0.3 seconds the heart is in a rest phase.

The final product, Philips’ 256-slice Brilliance iCT, was launched at the Radiological Society of North America show in December, delivered in time to blunt the impact of a competing product introduction by Toshiba (Tokyo) of its Aquilion One with a 320-slice detector.

Also for Philips, the group built a clinical demonstrator for a remotely controlled ultrasound probe in six months that included development of complex haptic controls, real-time simulation of touch-and-feel sensations in the remote operator’s hand controls for a probe touching the patient’s body in another room, or at even greater distances.

Four demonstrator models have been placed with reference hospitals for further tests and development, one in the UK, one in Rotterdam, “and two others in locations I am not allowed to tell you,” said Ijff.

The two external projects promoted as case studies included a micro CT scanner for animal testing of medical products, and a disposable diagnostic test not for point-of-care but for point-of-intervention by police, a hand-held drug abuse test for traffic control that can be conducted using saliva while the driver remains seated in the car.

Smith & Nephew began seeking external clients in mid-2006 and according to Paul Gunning, a senior microscopist thrust into the role of exhibition salesman, today half the group’s projects come from outside clients, all of them from the UK.

“This is our first foray into continental Europe,” he said.

The effort is part of a wider strategy at Smith & Nephew toward what the company terms Open Innovation, he said, the idea that in a world of increasingly distributed knowledge, companies cannot afford to rely entirely on traditional internal efforts but should mix things up, buying and licensing inventions and interacting with other companies.

Smith & Nephew Technical Services finished its first full year in December, reporting results “well ahead of targets,” said Gunning, who added that the targets for 2008 are “extremely ambitious, in excess of 100% growth.”

“What is encouraging this ambition is the need for broad sciences applied to so many projects now,” he said. “Customers need everything now for a single project whether surface treatments, biologics, or chemical engineering. Projects are simply more complicated.”