Based on its recent analysis of the medical implantable textile structures design market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Secant Medical, Inc. with the 2012 North American Frost & Sullivan Award for Enabling Technology.

Combining variability in structure, delivery method, performance, physical composition, resorbability, and other unique elements that make up implantable textile constructions, Secant Medical's customized approach enables medical device manufacturers to develop a portfolio of more innovative, effective, and commercially successful medical device designs.

Secant Medical is one of the few suppliers that can provide customized designs at competitive prices  to  medical  device  manufacturers and  other  notable  clients  in  the  biomedical device industry.

"There is an emerging industry need to completely understand the role that material selection plays in realizing component structure design, optimizing the development process, and largely defining the form and function of the end device," said Frost & Sullivan Senior Research Analyst Prasanna Vadhana Kannan. "One of the unique approaches adopted by Secant Medical toward design methodology is its ability to understand the medical device design requirements and leverage its technology to create a customized solution for the client's device application."

The right combination of established and emerging novel substrates, along with a carefully structured material selection process, offers an effective path toward enhancing the performance of a medical device design. Secant Medical is focused on advancing textile constructs built from absorbable and bio-active polymers for cardiovascular, general surgery, neurovascular, orthopedic, and regenerative medicine applications that require short-term tissue support while the body repairs itself, followed by long-term biologic integration.

The company's approach will also enable niche applications for biomedical textiles. For instance, Frost & Sullivan expects that in the near future, spinal applications will benefit from woven structures that contain reinforced holes for screws and other fixative components used for attaching to a bone plate. In effective filtration-involving applications, weaving with wires and other biomaterials paves the way for more open constructions that have highly controlled pore sizes for capturing emboli, while at the same time allowing normal blood flow through the material. Such prospects of woven biomedical textiles are useful in surgical techniques involving high-stroke patients. As such, the potential for Secant Medical's technology is far-reaching.

"Another crucial capability in woven biomedical textiles is the ability to provide vital properties by altering or modulating the geometry of the structures and the materials from which they are produced," noted Kannan. "Secant Medical is working toward textile components engineered from materials designed to degrade at varying rates over time, thereby allowing the ability to fine-tune fabric degradation in sync with the desired tissue healing rate of the patient."

Further, Secant Medical has formed strategic partnerships with leading biomaterial providers in order to boost the innovation in the orthopedics segment involving regenerative medicine, tissue scaffolding, and orthobiologics concepts. The company is also investing in R&D to advance the development of biomaterials and medical technologies available for surgical procedures.

For being a forward-thinking supplier that works toward the device manufacturer's needs in a constantly evolving industry, Secant Medical is the worthy recipient of the 2012 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for Enabling Technology in the implantable textile structures design market.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that has developed a pioneering technology that not only enhances current products but also enables the development of newer products and applications. The award recognizes the high market acceptance potential of the recipient's technology.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.