Abstract
As the need for maintenance of medical devices used by medical institutions increases year by year, the role of clinical engineers acquires more and more importance. In order to secure the trust of society in medical institutions, it is necessary to collect and analyze data on maintenance and repair history of medical devices. The authors had engaged in development work based on the needs detected in our university hospital, and succeeded in commercialization a support system for the maintenance of medical devices through the cooperation between the industry and the university in February 2003. In this study, we analyze the factors that reach manufacture and industrialization are necessary for the successful implementation of this system including country policies, the collaboration between the industry and academia, and sharing of the roles with the medical device manufacturer. We found that human cooperation with the manufacturers engineers and salespeople, systematic cooperation, and patent strategies were the keys to success. We concluded that common understanding between company management and researchers regarding the development of products was essential as a key factor for successful commercialization.
