Researchers, health care engineers, and medical device experts gathered recently for the inaugural Value-driven Engineering: A National Conference on Medical Innovation for US Global Competitiveness assembled by the Austen BioInnovation Institute in Akron (ABIA) and sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Experts from some of the nation’s leading biomedical device engineering companies and research institutions advised the US health care device industry to accelerate innovation by changing their approach to research and development.

For nearly a year, members of a national steering committee, led by ABIA, have promoted value-driven engineering as a strategy for medical device development that embraces simplicity while advancing quality and improved, patient-centered care as a way to promote innovation, value, and efficiency across the health care system.

Different from frugal engineering, which focuses on reduced manufacturing costs, value-driven engineering focuses on improved clinical utility and reduced complexity to the end user, as well as value and cost efficiency across the entire health care continuum.