B11. Material Needs for Medical Devices

In the last two decades tremendous progress has been made in the field of bioactive and biomimetic materials and in understanding natural/biologic materials. On the other hand, most of the medical devices that improve people’s lives such as pacemakers, cardiac stents, heart valves, and large joint replacements utilize a fairly small set of conventional materials subjected to traditional problems in materials science. Due to the extremely high reliability goals, the complex use conditions, and long implant duration, it is often very difficult accurately predict the product performance.

This symposium includes topics covering the control and prediction of fatigue, corrosion, tribology, biostability, and biocompatibility of implants and complex medical devices. Contributions on metals, ceramics, polymers and multi-material systems are welcome.

Organizer

• Roger Narayan, North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina, USA, roger_narayan@unc.edu