CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (PRWEB) December 5, 2008
“We are excited to have active participation and insights from ADI at the forum,” said Professor Anantha Chandrakasan, director of MIT’s Microsystems Technology Laboratories and chair of the Medical Electronics Workshop. “The development of next-generation implantable and wearable medical electronics will require an active collaboration between industry, medical professionals, and academia. ADI’s presentations at the forum are critical in defining the opportunities and challenges for medical electronics.”
During his talk, Patrick O’Doherty described how increasingly complex portable medical systems are moving from hospitals to points of primary care, such as doctors’ offices, ambulances, and even into patients’ homes. “As sophisticated healthcare technology increasingly migrates toward points of care and into the home, medical system requirements are becoming much more challenging in terms of required size, cost, robustness, performance, and ease of use,” said O’Doherty. “Analog semiconductor manufacturers are being challenged to develop highly integrated chips that will provide the enabling technology for next-generation medical devices, including increasingly lighter and smaller portable medical devices.”
As an example, O’Doherty discussed two eight-channel (octal) ultrasound receivers recently introduced by ADI. One offers the industry’s lowest terminated noise for high- and mid-end cart-based ultrasound equipment that needs superior image quality, and the other is the most power-efficient device in its class for addressing the requirements of portable ultrasound systems. Both are examples of the highest level of integration available to ultrasound system manufacturers, with many key functions previously only available in discrete form, now provided on a single chip and designed to optimize ultrasound system performance.
Tom O’Dwyer took part in a panel discussion that focused on the topic, “The Next Semiconductor Opportunity: Medical Electronics and Systems.” O’Dwyer and other medical electronics experts discussed state-of-the-art semiconductor technology as well as significant emerging trends affecting the design of new medical devices. Topics covered included ultra-low-power device and system design, system requirements and specifications, emerging applications, market opportunities and component technologies.
About Patrick O’Doherty
As healthcare segment director at Analog Devices, Patrick O’Doherty leads the company’s business development and marketing efforts for technology that enables prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment of a variety of human conditions. O’Doherty oversees ADI’s dedicated healthcare team that works to complement the ongoing efforts of ADI’s many existing product lines and field resources already successfully focused on healthcare. His responsibilities include managing the design, sales, and marketing teams responsible for developing signal chain solutions for the medical imaging and patient monitoring markets and identifying new medical market opportunities for ADI.
O’Doherty is a frequent speaker on technology related healthcare topics. In addition to presenting at the MIT Next-Generation Medical Electronic Systems Forum, he was a recent speaker at Electronica 2008 in Germany, MEDTEC China, and at the Nikkei Medical Electronics Forum in Tokyo.
About Tom O’Dwyer
As ADI’s Healthcare Team Technology Director, Tom O’Dwyer is responsible for identifying and developing technology to address the emerging needs of the medical market, including laboratory equipment, imaging, patient monitoring, consumer healthcare, and implanted devices. He was instrumental in setting up ADI’s initial venture into portable medical diagnostics. O’Dwyer is a founding member and active participant in the Biomedical Diagnostics Institute, a $ 30 million joint industrial-academic research organization focused on the development of novel portable diagnostics and based at Dublin City University.
About Analog Devices
Innovation, performance, and excellence are the cultural pillars on which Analog Devices has built one of the longest standing, highest growth companies within the technology sector. Acknowledged industry-wide as the world leader in data conversion and signal conditioning technology, Analog Devices serves over 60,000 customers, representing virtually all types of electronic equipment. Celebrating over 40 years as a leading global manufacturer of high-performance integrated circuits used in analog and digital signal processing applications, Analog Devices is headquartered in Norwood, Massachusetts, with design and manufacturing facilities throughout the world. Analog Devices’ common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “ADI” and is included in the S&P 500 Index. http://www.analog.com
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