Biomedical Products/Solutions

Health care products that save, prolong, and improve life begin with inspiration, take form through innovation and collaboration, and emerge ready to meet patient needs. QinetiQ North America works closely with leading clinical institutions, universities, and medical corporations to research and develop, patent, and license biomedical advances.

Cardiology

Technology advances in the fight against cardiovascular disease will benefit thousands of patients. From a tiny assist pump in an operating room to monitoring systems for blood pumps, QinetiQ North America is committed to the development of biomedical technologies and new products to repair, replace, or support a failing heart.

Neurophysiology

Liquid Crystal Polymers (LCPs) are a remarkable class of materials with incredible electrical, mechanical, and barrier (moisture and gases) properties. QinetiQ North America successfully developed a proprietary processing technology for LCPs that led to a number of commercial licenses for printed circuit board applications. More recently, our work has attracted significant interest within the biomedical community, and we are pursuing development of a completely integrated product that combines neural probes, cable, and electronics suitable for long-term implantation.

Physiological Monitoring

Wearable and comfortable may not be two characteristics that most health care professionals associate with patient monitoring and diagnostics, but QinetiQ North America is changing that with new technology that will monitor everything from respiration and heart rate to brain activity. An extensive proprietary base of research and product development in materials serves as the springboard for our advanced work in such areas as “wear and forget” sensors used to monitor patient physiology.

Advanced Biomaterials

QinetiQ North America has worked in synthesis, processing, and applications development of high-performance materials including polymers, ceramics, and composites for more than two decades. Innovations in materials often have wide-ranging impacts, but require substantial time and investment to reach the market. Within the medical field, we have targeted several areas where our intellectual property is potentially advantageous including biodegradable fibers for artificial heart valves, nanofibrous membranes, and responsive gels.

Implant Electronics

QinetiQ North America is applying unique plastic film technology to make micro-ribbon cables for implantable neural prostheses. This development is based on polymer materials technology that provides both electrical and chemical resistance, together with inertness and high barrier properties for long-term use. The major limitation of current neural probes is the rigidity of the interconnection between the implant electrode and the outside of the body through a connector that passes through the skin. QinetiQ North America's LCP interconnect and packaging technology was adapted to this application to provide a flexible cable with integrated connector.

Health Monitoring

QinetiQ North America brings practical, rugged, comfortable textile expertise to the incorporation of sensors in wearable garments. This system provides tracking and evaluation of an individual’s physiological condition, such as hydration level, alertness, and heart rate, based on a platform of gel-free sensors. A recent Army soldier program successfully designed, manufactured, and tested a prototype “wear and forget” textile-based physiological sensor system, integrating ECG electrodes with a breathing rate sensor. An important constraint of this project was packaging the sensors with associated electronics in a flexible, comfortable, low-profile package utilizing QinetiQ North America's liquid crystal polymer film.

Biomedical Tools and Devices

QinetiQ North America is developing innovative biomedical devices, including applications such as drug delivery and artificial tissue growth. We are engineering a stent to provide local drug delivery in the body to minimize post-interventional systemic treatment. The stent uses a special polymeric membrane with high surface area and tailorable pore size. The nanofibrous nature of this membrane allows higher drug loading over a more uniform area than conventional microfibers.

We are also developing textile preforms as net-shape lattice for tissue growth for an artificial heart valve. Biodegradable fibers are being used with a custom braiding process to match the properties of the human heart valve. In an NIH program in this area, samples were successfully produced using the braiding process. The specimens were found to exhibit different mechanical properties in the circumferential and radial directions, which was the design intent.

For more information, please email TSGinfo@QinetiQ-NA.com