@ THE SPEED OF LIGHTHOUSE Lighthouse Imaging

Diana Coulter Medical Team Sales Director, joins Robert Austring, CEO of Lighthouse Imaging, Benjamin Gray, CTO of Lighthouse Imaging and Host Justin Starbird as they talk about the benefits of attending and participating in the Informa Medical Device shows around the country. 

"The Informa shows do a lot for us. Lighthouse Imaging is a niche based company so it's a little different. For us, it represents an opportunity to not only generate leads, but to network with other companies that may work in our space. There's collaboration opportunities, there's opportunities to meet with other suppliers and really just expand their network, as well as what's important is, for us, it establishes credibility for us to be at these shows year over year. People begin to look for you, they begin to recognize you. It really does lend an air of credibility for you as well." Robert Austring, CEO Lighthouse Imaging.

"The Informa shows, the MD&M shows, the BioMed shows, it's really the sweet spot in between, that combines the medical industry and manufacturing, and brings them together. What I really like about the mix of the shows that we go to, the MD&M West show is a really big show. We get a wide variety of attendees. On the other hand, the BIOMEDevice Boston show is a little smaller and more intimate, and we find that the conversations that we have at some of the more regional shows are very succinct and right in line with what we need.

It's a way to get big device companies and small device companies on a level playing field inside of one room, and allow them to stir around and talk, and make the connections they need to do the business that's within their role, to their success." Benjamin Gray, CTO Lighthouse Imaging

One of the first things that we find in evaluation of disposable versus reusable is really driven primarily by economics. We can get into some of the details a little bit later. Economics is really a big driver of selection and another has to do with safety and cross-contamination of devices.

Ultimately, what we're really talking about here are a classification of devices and how they're used, whether they're reused repeatedly or they’re used one time and discarded  or somewhere in between. When we say, devices and what we're looking at, let's define that first before we actually hop into reusable versus the different options available out there, from a manufacturing standpoint 

It is a really broad topic. In general, you can categorize this as medical devices being reusable or disposable but I'm really focused on the visualization and imaging side of things. Really medical cameras, endoscopic devices, really anything that's used to look on, at, or in the body. Quite often, they're used in conjunction with therapeutic devices.

At Lighthouse, our entire mission is to create, design, and manufacture imaging devices that are generally accessories or complementary to our customers' own medical devices. That's really what we're talking about here, is the imaging and therapeutic side of medical devices.

Today we’re discussing how Lighthouse helps companies with their disposable medical endoscopes and visualization systems. We're going to get a little bit more specific today about the use cases around how Lighthouse actually integrates with clients and what we do.

One of the primary driving factors for single-use devices, or at least primary consideration, is the economics and the business model for such devices. Ultimately, what it usually comes down to is unit cost. One of the primary ways that manufactures are able to bring unit cost down is through higher volumes on more of the material you purchase generally, the price breaks you get through the economies of scale. Additionally, the more units that you're building, you're able to generally employ better and more sophisticated levels of automation which reduces touch time or labor time.

Those really are highly-scalable applications, especially once you get to extremely high volumes, the automation side of things if you can be hands-off, you basically pay for a system once and it can produce material for you. Really, one of the things that we're looking at is are the economics viable and there are just certainly cases where it's not. 

Folks do consider another class of devices that's halfway in between reusable and single-use and they're called repose-able. There are devices that may be reused, let's say 5 or 10 times, rather than hundreds or thousands, but they're certainly used more than once. Looking at it from a cost per use scenario, if you're able to use something 5 or 10 times that greatly reduces the cost per case scenario which can be advantageous. It still allows you to design something relatively simply that doesn't have to be robust enough to last hundreds of your reprocessing cycles, but still gives you some of the advantages of a single-use device.

At Lighthouse, we try to use our core values when we approach devices and I think this applies to the waste element of disposable devices as well as the unintended re-use of single-use devices that we don't want to be involved in chasing the short dollar if you will, we want to be good stewards of our world and we want to make sure that what we're doing is viable economically in the short term but also the long term.

Generations from now, if we have to spend billions of dollars cleaning up the waste that was created, there may have been a short gain for us but ultimately a loss when it's all summed together. When we consider all of these elements, we do use our core value systems and our morals to make sure we're making the right decisions for our future as well as for the patients that are being operated on these devices.

Benjamin Gray, CTO of Lighthouse Imaging, and Justin Starbird, dig deeper into disposable devices and what the benefits are. They discuss a little bit of a more clear visual for listeners on why disposable devices are becoming a major trend in the medical device space. They also answer why it is so important for manufacturers or companies developing devices to take this into consideration.

Benjamin explains, that there are really two major categories. One is more cost-related and the other is more use related. The simpler one to address is the cost equation, the cost side of things. If a disposable or a single-use device economically doesn't make sense, it likely won't get developed, at least not as a single-use device. One of the challenges obviously is using material once and then discarding it. Cost of the device itself becomes very important, which maybe is less so important in a device that gets reused over and over.

Justin Starbird and Lighthouse Imaging Chief Technology Officer, Benjamin Gray talk about the different medical device options available. 

Every product development process in the medical device industry is unique due to factors such as function, use, performance, and cost objectives. In some cases devices function stand-alone, while others are complementary to the primary device, impacting the way the development process unfolds. Broadly speaking, Benjamin said, "...devices may be generally categorized as reusable or single-use. When it comes to the process and economics of development, there are pros and cons to each type." 

Obviously, one of the primary challenges to developing single-use devices is meeting pricing targets, as material and labor costs must be minimized in the final product. Costs and margins need to be continuously evaluated and remain at the forefront of the developer’s mind.

Listen as Justin and Benjamin discuss how the needs of clients ultimately determine which direction folks should lean.