It is important to have an appropriate testing protocol in place for this relatively new medical technology.
Medical devices have become increasingly complex over time and incorporation of “smart” features has become commonplace. These improvements may increase effectiveness of implantation, drug release, targeting specific organs, or data transmission from an implant, among many other possibilities. For example, a number of drug-delivery devices have been reduced in size to nanoscale. These nano-objects or nanoparticles (NP) are defined as a discrete piece of material with one, two, or three external dimensions ranging from 1 nm to 1 µm, and have properties or functionality enabled by their small scale. Their smaller size allows for the utilization of less invasive procedures to, for example, distribute a drug that is encapsulated within the NPs to a desired site of action. Depending on the composition of the NP, more regulated release of the drug (slower and more uniform over time) may be achieved, increasing the efficiency of the therapeutic treatment.
