TECHNOLOGY CONVERGENCE

At last year's YorkBiotech convergent medical technologies conference, John Soloninka defined convergent medical technologies as the:

"Synergistic "intermingling" of 2 or more distinct technologies creating a new, hybrid device, process or product applied in health prevention, screening, diagnosis, therapy, monitoring or functional enhancement." (John Soloninka - 6/1/05)

These technologies span simple "combination products" to an entirely new sciences yielding truly "disruptive" technologies. These technologies will replace and/or create entirely new markets.

Adapted from Alan Barrell Biology, Bioconvergence, Information and Enterprise: Taking the Broad View
May 20th, 2004

As modern medicine moves towards the holy grail "personalized medicine," convergent medical technologies will certainly play a central role in this - as well as in other areas of medicine. By definition, personalized medicine must include not only a therapeutic component but also a diagnostic aspect as well. A drug-device combination that embodies both of these functions will, in fact, be the embodiment of this holy grail.