Editorial

The Journal of Medical Devices (JMED) is an exciting new venture offered by ASME with the support of the Design Division and the Bioengineering Division of this Society. This journal offers an important opportunity to our biomedical and design community to describe innovative devices used in the clinic and the laboratory, which cannot be easily presented in other journals or venues. We hope that you will join us in this new journal—submit a manuscript, serve as a reviewer, and join the excitement in this rapidly growing area—medical device design, development, evaluation, testing, and final use in health care. This is indeed a real world journal—not just a theoretical presentation of ideas, but rather a presentation of medical devices and technology that change our world and our lives.

The prototype for this Journal appeared as a Special Issue of the ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, November 2005, Vol. 127, No. 6, pp 893–1044. The concept for the Journal of Medical Devices began with Phil Di Vietro, now Managing Director of Publications for ASME. He has followed the first three Design of Medical Devices Conferences (DMD) at the University of Minnesota starting in spring of 2001 and observed the growth and popularity of this technical/clinical conference. For some time he felt that there was a need for a technical journal covering the area of medical devices, and that ASME could provide support for such a journal. Thank you Phil.

There is an Advisory Board for this Journal made up of two members selected by each of the two divisions. During 2006, Tom Andriacchi (Stanford) from the Bioengineering Division and Kazem Kazerounian (U. of Connecticut) from the Design Division have served this role and have been very helpful in launching the first issue. The two division chairs Lou Soslowsky (Bioengineering ) and Krishna Gupta (Design) and their executive committees were also invaluable in the formation of this Journal.

Scope of Journal of Medical Devices. Papers in this Journal are expected to focus on applied research and development of new medical devices or instrumentation. The Journal will publish papers on devices that improve diagnostic, interventional, and therapeutic treatments. Of particular interest are novel devices that allow new surgical strategies, new methods of drug delivery, or other devices that are intended to reduce the complexity, cost, or adverse results of health care. Significant biomechanical, clinical, or engineering content is expected. The Design Innovation paper category is encouraged for reporting about novel devices for which there may be less extensive clinical or engineering results. Also, featured in the Journal will be a “medical device news” section.

Papers are invited for submission to the Journal of Medical Devices in the following suggested categories:

• New medical sensors/actuators

• Orthopedic devices

• Cardiovascular devices

• Rehabilitation devices

• Neurological devices

• Bioheat transfer devices

• Medical instrumentation

• Image guided intervention/treatment

• Endoscopic/laparoscopic devices

• Minimally invasive devices

• Human performance/force assessment

• Tissue engineered devices

• Drug/cell delivery systems

• Medical robotics

• Medical device design processes

• Medical device manufacturing

• Human factors in medical devices

Associate Editors. The Editors would like to thank those who have served as Associate Editors for the First Issue of JMED:

Karim A. Abdel-Malek Ph.D. University of Iowa

Ted A. Conway Ph.D. Virginia Commonwealth University

Vijay K. Goel Ph.D. University of Toledo

Just Herder Professor Delft University of Technology

Hamid M. Lankarani Ph.D. Wichita State University

Ming-Yih Lee Ph.D. Chang Gung University

Amy L. Lerner Ph.D. University of Rochester

James E. Moore, Jr. Ph.D. Texas A&M University

Jahangir Rastegar Ph.D. State University of New York at Stony Brook

Erol Sancaktar Ph.D. The University of Akron¹

Also serving in the Associate Editor role for the First Issue are:

Gary Lee Bowlin Ph.D. Virginia Commonwealth University

Paul Anthony Iaizzo Ph.D. University of Minnesota

Horea Ilies Ph.D. University of Connecticut

Keefe B.Manning Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University

We welcome you to the Journal of Medical Devices. We hope that you will find this to be as exciting as we do. This is a labor of love for the co-editors and a number of dedicated associate editors and support staff. We look forward to seeing your work in future editions and as you become a part of the creative enterprise in this rapidly growing field. Enjoy reading the papers that follow.