Leon Tsai, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of HCmed Innovations Co., Ltd., has an extended trajectory of over 15 years in the development and manufacturing of medical devices. He has designed and developed several medical devices such as body fat monitors, sphygmomanometers, skin analyzers, and mesh nebulizers, experience that has provided him with vast knowledge on the design and requirements of medical equipment as well as regulatory affairs. In a recent interview, Leon shared with us his motivation and thoughts toward the future of mesh nebulizers.
1. Throughout your career you have design and develop many types of medical devices, what do you consider the major similarities and differences among all these medical devices?
I have experience designing and developing sphygmomanometers, body fat monitors, and nebulizers. Besides these medical devices, I have also taken part in the development process of some consumer products, such as skin testers and UV light meters. The similarity of these devices is that they should all meet their corresponding regulatory requirements and conform to safety regulations. Post-market surveillance and post-market clinical follow-up are also required practices we need to undertake in the development of medical devices; this serves for the purpose of continuously monitoring our products’ performance and quality after they are being launched for market use.
As for the differences, the core technology and manufacturing process of each device differs from one another. We need to keep on modifying our products for them to achieve better effectiveness and to conform to safety requirements. How the product is positioned in the market also affects the resources and cost put into development and manufacturing. If a device is marketed at a lower price, then the developers would definitely aim to cut the production cost.
However, due to the low-price products from China in the past decades, nowadays, it is important for us to focus on continuously improve our developing skills to differentiate our products and to let consumers consider more than just the price factor.
2. Taking into account your vast experience with different types of medical devices, why did you choose to focus on nebulizers?
With air pollution worsening and with the number of people suffering from pulmonary diseases increasing every year, I want to be part of a group that makes the world better by bringing better solutions to inhalation treatments. Moreover, as some of the members in my family are affected by respiratory conditions, I am motivated to provide a device that is easy-to-use and that can help patients in their fight against these diseases.
I have thought of developing other medical equipment as well, but eventually I decided that focusing on one single device and making continuous improvements on it should be the right pathway to providing a high-quality medical device to patients. Knowing that users feel satisfied with our product and feel better after using it gives me a strong sense of achievement. With this in mind, I feel driven to fully commit myself to the development of nebulizers so that patients could have better access to high-quality respiratory care.
3. In the process of nebulizer development, what is the biggest challenge you have faced so far? How did you solve it?
The biggest challenges I have faced lie in the electro-mechanical integration and the design of mesh modules. HCmed has an experienced professional team of mechanical and electrical engineers, but the mesh modules of our nebulizers are supplied through an OEM partnership. Since different medications require different meshes for faster or more effective nebulization, it is essential for us to go through multiple discussions with our supplier, so that we are able to obtain the corresponding meshes to make highly efficient customized devices according to each customer’s needs.
4. What do you hope to achieve through nebulizer development?
We hope nebulizers could help patients relieve symptoms and treat their respiratory conditions, thus improving their quality of life. In order for patients to control and improve their conditions, I think it is important to inculcate and spread awareness of the benefits of mesh nebulizers.
We hope to continue improving our products to meet patients’ expectations. By doing so, we hope that users could replace the jet nebulizers’ old image of being bulky, noisy and inconvenient with the current portable, silent technology of mesh nebulizers. Our product allows patients to experience convenient and efficient inhalation treatments. We hope that if users are more familiar with our nebulizers and are more willing to use them, they would be able to benefit from their advantages and improve their respiratory conditions.
5. What do you think of the future and the market trend of nebulizers? Are current nebulizers lacking any functions or features?
Current mesh nebulizers do not require patients to learn complicated product instructions. Besides being intuitive to use, mesh nebulizers are also noise-free, easy to clean and do not require hand-breath coordination; these are advantages that make mesh nebulizers more convenient devices than MDI (metered-dose inhalers) and DPI (dry-powder inhalers) for inhalation therapy.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many pharmaceutical partners have started to reacknowledge the importance and the irreplaceability of mesh nebulizers. We also realized that these inhalation devices could be of new application to the global pandemic. Nebulizers are useful tools that have helped control the pandemic and place themselves in the post-pandemic care system; this drives us to keep on striving for higher quality to provide better treatment options for respiratory patients.
The mesh nebulizers now are designed to be portable and easy-to-use, making inhalation treatment a more stress-free experience. However, most current devices lack the function to monitor patient’s treatment. If future nebulizers are integrated with monitoring systems and could measure the efficiency of each treatment, this could probably facilitate communication with doctors and reduce medication waste. Features of this kind would further benefit both patients and health care systems, which is something worth evaluating for development.
