Service Design for Medical Devices

Modern medical devices have evolved through centuries of medical practice from simple bandages and surgical instruments to programmable electronic devices and, most recently, devices approaching a level of artificial intelligence. Medical devices have always acted as an extension to the limbs of the physician, enabling the experts to have an extra pair of hands, extra time, or just the right instrument to treat patients. The present-day interest in leveraging artificial intelligence in healthcare is just the most recent step on this evolutionary path. The increased complexity of such devices also underscores the importance of design, usability, and understanding not just the disease and the patient but also the medical professional as a user. In this chapter, we will discuss medical device development, the role artificial intelligence may have in it, and the standards and regulations that govern such work. We then look at how service design fits together with the expectations placed on medical devices and how the discipline may provide welcome structure and assistance to meeting the key medical device requirements.