ASM International, sponsor of the MPMD conference, has established the Materials for Medical Devices Database, described by the organization as "the only materials database created specifically for medical device design." During the conference, the association and its vendor partner, Granta Design (Cambridge, UK), demonstrated a database enhancement in the form of the first elements of an Orthopedic Module to join the resource's existing Cardiovascular Module.

The module establishes records for nearly 1,200 devices for spinal interlaminal fixation orthosis, spinal intervertebral body fixation orthosis and pedicle screw spinal systems, with the goal of enabling device designers to access information to support device design, materials screening and various regulatory filings.

ASM and Granta, whose materials data management software drives the database, work with a steering committee of industry and academic experts to aggregate and maintain information from thousands of citations in journals, FDA device approval information, manufacturers' datasheets, standards and web sites.

Don Lensner, group manager of ASM's sales and member services center, said the database offers what the device industry has wanted: "access to the broad range of information that they needed on topics such as materials selection, FDA approval paths and the like." Thus, ASM is "literally creating an on-line community where our members who are involved in the medical device field will have access to forums with their peers."

The target date for throwing open the electronic doors to that on-line community is 1Q08.

Lensner sees the database as a resource particularly useful for smaller companies. "In a big company," he said, "you can pick up the phone if you're stymied by a problem and talk to one of the other 3,000 engineers employed there." For start-up operations, the database "lets them compete with the big companies in cutting time to market."

With the Materials for Medical Devices Database, subscribers can screen materials by properties, applications and other key attributes "in minutes," Lensner said.

Raymond Sirochman, manager of database sales and liaison to the medical device community for ASM, said people are "very impressed with the amount of information there, especially in the area of biocompatibility of materials," a key criterion for medical products development.

The database is being built on a modular basis, with the new section on spinal materials representing the first step for the orthopedics section. Resource materials on knees, hips, elbows and other extremities will follow, then new sections on pulmonary and neurological device development, and another on dental implants.

"We have over 3,600 devices cited in the database already, just in the cardiovascular and spine sections," Lensner said. Those shown demonstrations of the database at the ASM booth in the meeting's exhibit space, usually responded, he said, with something like "Wow, this is so on target!"

The modules, launched with the release of Cardiovascular version 1.0 this past January, "can be integrated or sold separately," Cebon said. As of the release of another quarterly update this coming December, the cardio unit will be in version 3.0 and there'll be a full complement of materials in the Orthopedic module.

The database is structured to include as much relevant information as can be gathered on materials, coatings and drugs. Case studies include finding materials used in a predicate device, examining drug/device combinations, and "fully traceable" sources of engineering and biomedical data. The idea, Cebon said, is "to combine engineering information, medical information and mechanical/physical information into one database."