Research & Development Biomedical Technologies

Healthcare products that save, prolong, and improve life begin with inspiration, take form through innovation and collaboration, and emerge ready to meet patient needs. Foster-Miller works closely with leading clinical institutions, universities, and medical corporations to research & develop, patent, and license advances in biomedical technologies. We effectively apply and integrate our core capabilities to research & develop biomedical technologies and provide new treatment options for physicians and patients across a broad spectrum of medical-care specialties including cardiology, orthopaedics, neurophysiology, physiological monitoring, and advanced biomaterials.

Technology advances in the fight against cardiovascular disease will benefit thousands of patients who suffer and die from its effects. From a tiny assist pump in an operating room to monitoring systems for blood pumps, Foster-Miller is committed to research & development of biomedical technologies and new products to repair, replace, or support a failing heart.

Orthopaedics

Breakthrough discoveries will shape new techniques and products for clinical application in the field of orthopaedics. Foster-Miller’s technology will make such discoveries a reality for the cancer patients who have lost a portion of their leg bone to surgery, the diabetics who face amputation without proper diagnosis and treatment of foot ulcerations, the stroke patients who wait for effective rehabilitation in the hope of walking again, and more. Through collaboration with orthopaedic surgeons and researchers at leading medical institutions and universities, we combine innovation with a multidisciplinary engineering approach to create products that have and continue to attract major medical device manufacturers as development and license partners.

Our project examples highlight our discoveries and opportunities in the field of orthopaedics.

Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCPs) are a remarkable class of materials with incredible electrical, mechanical, and barrier (moisture and gases) properties. Foster-Miller successfully developed a proprietary processing technology for LCPs that led to a number of commercial licenses for printed circuit board applications. More recently, our work has attracted significant interest within the biomedical community, and we are pursuing development of a completely integrated product that combines neural probes, cable, and electronics suitable for long-term implantation.

Our research promises significant advances to critical NIH programs such as the Neural Prosthesis Program at NINDS, as well as to emerging autonomous medicine initiatives such as implantable drug delivery. Success in this area will one day help deaf patients hear, blind patients see, and paralyzed patients regain motor control. Funded efforts include microribbon cables, neurotrophic electrodes, and packaging for implantable electronics.

Wearable and comfortable may not be two characteristics that most healthcare professionals associate with patient monitoring and diagnostics, but Foster-Miller is changing that with new technology that will monitor everything from respiration and heart rate to brain activity. An extensive, proprietary base of research and product development in materials serves as the springboard for our advanced work in such areas as “wear and forget” sensors used to monitor patient physiology.

Foster-Miller has worked in synthesis, processing, and applications development of high-performance materials including polymers, ceramics, and composites for more than two decades. Innovations in materials often have wide-ranging impacts but require substantial time and investment to reach market. Within the medical field, we have targeted several areas where our intellectual property is potentially advantageous including nanofibrous membranes, responsive gels, and biodegradable fibers for artificial heart valves.

Foster-Miller is applying unique plastic film technology to make micro-ribbon cables for implantable neural prostheses. This development is based on polymer materials technology that provides both electrical and chemical resistance, together with inertness and high barrier properties for long-term use. The major limitation of current neural probes is the rigidity of the interconnection between the implant electrode and the outside of the body through a connector that passes through the skin. Foster-Miller's LCP interconnect and packaging technology was adapted to this application to provide a flexible cable with integrated connector.

Through NIH-sponsored research, we have demonstrated that LCP films can be used to fabricate flexible cables that can be subsequently made inert to provide a barrier to moisture and salt-containing bodily fluids. Biocompatibility, durability, and in vivo performance of the material had previously been demonstrated. Future work in this area will lead to a microribbon cable and connector assembly suitable for a wide variety of neural probes.

Foster-Miller brings practical, rugged, comfortable textile expertise to the incorporation of sensors in wearable garments. This system provides tracking and evaluation of an individual's physiological condition, such as hydration level, alertness, and heart rate, based on a platform of gel-free sensors. A recent Army soldier program successfully designed, manufactured and tested a prototype "wear and forget" textile-based physiological sensor system, integrating ECG electrodes with a breathing rate sensor. An important constraint of this project was packaging the sensors with associated electronics in a flexible, comfortable, low-profile package utilizing Foster-Miller's liquid crystal polymer film. Feasibility of the system was demonstrated and a more sophisticated system design was created for field trials.

Foster-Miller is developing innovative biomedical devices, including applications such as drug delivery and artificial tissue growth. We are engineering a stent to provide local drug delivery in the body to minimize post-interventional systemic treatment. The stent uses a special polymeric membrane with high surface area and tailorable pore size. The nanofibrous nature of this membrane allows higher drug loading over a more uniform area than conventional microfibers.

We are also developing textile preforms as net-shape lattice for tissue growth for an artificial heart valve. Biodegradable fibers are being used with a custom braiding process to match the properties of the human heart valve. In an NIH program in this area, samples were successfully produced using the braiding process. The specimens were found to exhibit different mechanical properties in the circumferential and radial directions, which was the design intent.

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