ABSTRACT

In some respects implants are like any other engineered device: they have to be designed carefully and must fulfill specific requirements according to their application. What makes the development of implants special is the necessity for close interdisciplinary cooperation. Good communication between physicians and engineers is essential. The physician should provide the engineer with the requirements; while the engineer has to translate those requirements into specific values and find the best compromise possible between conflicting requirements. This paper explains this concept by the means of two examples and gives an overview of the main questions which have to be considered when designing a new implant.