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Design forms the bridge between technology and usability, but in the medical sector it arguably has the greatest influence — and faces its most stringent challenges.

Designers must incorporate some of the most highly advanced science into devices that are used under highly stressed conditions, where hygiene and safety are often crucial.

Some devices are for users with very specific needs and difficulties.

‘The job of a medical product designer is somewhat different from a consumer product designer,’ explained Jim Dawton, director of Pearson Matthews, a design consultancy that specialises in the healthcare sector. While product design is often a marketing-related discipline, transferring some form of technology into a usable and attractive form, the task in the medical field is more one of defining a technology than designing it.

‘Someone might have seen a need in a hospital, or they might have a piece of technology and an idea. What we do is help them find out the value of their idea, make it tangible, so they can raise some money to go on to the next stage. And we can go all the way through the process to deliver the product itself.’