Abhishek Gautam
Manager, Packaging Engineering
ConMed Linvatec
Abhishek (Abhi) Gautam is a packaging engineer with more than 10 years of experience in medical device sector (orthopedics, cardiovascular and surgical) currently working as Packaging R&D Manager at ConMed Corporation. He is currently pursuing a Graduate Certificate in Strategic Management from Harvard University. He also holds a MS degree (Packaging Science) from Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY and BE degree (Printing Technology) from India. Abhi has been a radio show guest for Medical Packaging Innovation and has spoken at MDM West’11. He enjoys writing article blogs for Medical Packaging Innovation and has contributed to several ground breaking patents in field of packaging design. Abhi currently lives in Clearwater, Florida with his wife and infant daughter. He enjoys travelling, watching professional football and photography.
Why is medical device packaging innovation important?
MDMs (medical device manufacturers) continue to provide ground-breaking medical treatment through first-to-market technology keeping packaging engineers constantly challenged. Such challenges require the medical packaging innovation to be embedded in product innovation fabric for long term sustained success. The bottom line is that medical device packaging innovation is important because it empowers the MDMs to keep up with complex risk matrix formed of continuously evolving device design inputs, regulatory requirements and customer expectations.
Describe a device packaging initiative you will be focusing on in 2014.
We will be focusing on device packaging designs that are in strict strategic and technical coherence with all aspects of packaging development lifecycle – cradle (design concept) to grave (point of use).
Please finish these sentences:
Medical device packaging is… a very important aspect of finished good configuration that contains, protects, preserves and gets your device to customer in its intended form of use. It is that very important element when poorly designed and poorly integrated in new product development process can result in major costs to business.
Our team’s goal is to… provide most innovative and compliant medical device packaging solutions that maintain safety and efficacy of device till the point of use.
If I could change one thing about device packaging, it would be… to utilize packaging technologies that reduce the overall carbon footprint and enhance long term sustainability.
What do you believe users expect from medical device packaging?
I believe that users expect the medical device packaging to be shelf conscious, easy-to-interact with and function as intended.
How do you see packaging evolving over the next 5 years?
In next 5 years I see increased emphasis on customer-focused designs, reducing carbon print, utilizing environment-friendly packaging technologies, sustainability initiatives, and transparency to packaging related metrics (Coca Cola and AbInBev are great examples).
What is the most instrumental trend in the packaging industry?
Currently the most instrumental trend in the medical device packaging industry is to take a holistic approach to medical device packaging design and development. What used to be a segregated back-end process has evolved in to a cohesive front-end procedure over the past decade. Major medical device manufacturers are continuing to raise the bar of compliance and design control thereby making new product development teams very pro-active.
What are you most looking forward to regarding the Medical Device Packaging Conference?
I am looking to gain education from fellow medical device packaging professionals by attending the various sessions. This should also be a great opportunity to network as well.
Abhishek will be one of the distinguished presenters at the Medical Device Packaging Conference.
