Who would you suggest as the top 5 consultancies to help my company develop an interface for a medical product?
IDEO
Insight Product Development in Chicago, Boston, & Raleigh:
Thay do a ton of great Medical and Interface work.
check with these people, IDSA med product professional interest section:
http://new.idsa.org/webmodules/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=374&z=66
Worell and HSdesign have alot of experience.
If your paying out of pocket check the grad programs with med engineering/ID depts: IIT, CMU, UC
Everyone seems to regurgitate the same names of companies. I would venture to say that no matter what design catagory you are looking for someone would say top of mind design firms (i.e. IDEO).
You are looking for someone with Medical Interface experience. A few questions for you to answer, or at the very least think of before you overlook a whole pile of excellent firms :
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What’s your budget? If budget is an issue, going to the IDEOs of the world will cost you a minimum of $120 USD per hour.
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Can you define Medical Interface in your words? i.e. Does that mean the ergonomics of a hand-held cauterizer or does it mean the buttons and user interaction design of the OS for a larger device like an MRI?
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Do you need ONLY industrial design work or are you looking for more of a turnkey approach? This one to me is the most critical. Compartmentalizing your design disciplines is a recipe for delays and development cost run-up.
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What is your reason for wanting a company with this experience? Are there regulations that you are concerned about running up against? I tend to think that if you are looking for fresh ideas in a product catagory you might benefit from a company that is not a low hanging fruit (i.e. IDEO).
Look around the IDEAs awards, etc. There are a lot of smaller companies doing some great things. If your acceptant of a small (and I do believe it is small) of risk, consider some smaller/less established companies who generally do good work solving problems.