How TIDI-Clinician Collaboration Impacts Medical Device Innovation in Healthcare

The quality of innovative TIDI Products medical devices comes from the relationships between TIDI and caregivers. Guidance from medical professionals who can offer real-world experience and practical feedback helps TIDI improve existing products and bring new, useful devices to market. 

A New Perspective on Patient and Caregiver Product Development

Healthcare workers bring a new perspective to product development, and their collaboration with TIDI Products fuels informed decision-making throughout the process. 

There are many opportunities to introduce medical devices into patient rooms, operating rooms, ICUs, surgical floors, and other hospital departments. TIDI partners with caregivers that bring independent product ideas to our attention.  

The Sterile-Z^® operating room back table cover was invented by two doctors who recognized the need for protecting sterile fields from airborne contamination prior to and during surgical procedures. Prototyping of the Posey^® HeadStart^™ Sensor was completed in collaboration with nurses who evaluated the product in a real-world, non-occupied hospital room.  

In short, caregivers:

• Know best what makes a device work in their environment(s)
• Are aware of existing and new challenges that could cause product development issues
• Can provide insightful feedback as to how and why products need to be easy to use, effective, and fit within a facility's daily workflows

The Impact of Working with Doctors and Nurses to Create Quality Products 

Collaboration between developer and user knowledge improves the odds of medical device success. Caregivers and TIDI Products engineers have historically pushed each other to consider new perspectives, challenge conclusions, and work toward the most efficient products, such as: 

• Sterile-Z Back Table Covers - Since its inception, this popular line of covers has undergone improvements for ease of use—another collaboration between caregivers and TIDI engineers that was prototyped, then further tested and validated by additional clinicians. 
• Posey HeadStart Sensors - These sensors were created to help prevent patient falls in the hospital by giving nurses extra time to respond to an unassisted chair or bed exit. The nurses' feedback during prototype testing was used to finalize the designs currently on the market, all vetted by caregivers who best understand these unique needs. 

Medical Device Collaboration in the COVID-19 Era 

Given the importance of TIDI-clinician collaboration and product development, suspending activities in response to the COVID-19 crisis wasn't an option. 

Despite the pandemic, TIDI Products and our caregiver collaborators found safe ways to solve tough problems caregivers face daily. Our product development teams leveraged video conferencing and other technologies to:

• Coordinate virtual visits with dozens of healthcare workers
• Provide status updates and demonstrations of in-progress products
• Gather feedback, adjust, and adapt medical devices accordingly

Making the right product development decisions based on the right information can happen in the initial collaborative phases of research and design, or well into prototyping. 

Either way, TIDI Products is committed to developing products that help reduce risk and enhance compliance, allowing caregivers to perform at their best to ensure optimal patient protection.