By Darren Gilmer, Senior Engineering Manager, Product Development, Forj Medical
MD&M West has long been an indicator for where medical device innovation is heading, and this year’s show made one thing clear: medtech is scaling faster, getting smaller, and becoming more complex to manufacture.
Medical Alley was well represented again on the West Coast, with a strong presence of Minnesota OEMs, suppliers, and engineering leaders reinforcing the state’s role as a global hub for medical device innovation. Conversations across the show floor reflected challenges that are very familiar to our medtech community: how to move beyond highly complex ideas and prototypes to deliver reliable, high-volume production with quality and speed.
One of the strongest themes at the show was the continued acceleration of manufacturing automation. With more sensing and computing power required within tiny devices, the challenge becomes balancing manual assembly with automation. One of the educational sessions delivered by a Forj Medical industry consultant focused on electromagnetic sensor assemblies, highlighting how even the slightest misalignments or noise and thermal distortions can compromise device performance in the field. The manufacturing process must be highly choreographed, at the design stage, in order to successfully develop these sophisticated devices.
Manufacturers that have invested in automation that can be customized to specific projects and a skilled workforce experienced in handling microscopic components, then strategically positioned these capabilities in key manufacturing and supply chain markets – like Minnesota, Costa Rica, and Asia – can bring modern medtech to life and scale it to meet market demand.
Neurotechnology and advanced sensing also drew strong interest at the show, with EM sensors increasingly viewed not as niche components, but as system-level enablers for brain-computer interfaces, smart implants, and next-generation diagnostics – categories in which Minnesota companies continue to play a leading role. A special session on the show floor by Forj Medical gave the crowds insights into how the latest BCIs are being manufactured.
With two booths at MD&M West, our team spent the week connecting with clients and peers from Minnesota and beyond, discussing how early co-development and scale-ready manufacturing strategies help turn complex innovations into commercial reality.
Forj Medical is a Minnesota-based vertically integrated contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) serving the medical technology industry. Forj Medical supports OEMs from concept through commercial scale with capabilities spanning system and component design, microelectronics, precision molding, automation, and advanced manufacturing. It helps medtech companies bring smaller, smarter, and more complex devices to market with speed and precision.
