Working as a team with the customer

​B. Braun is working on innovations in medical technology. But what these innovations actually look like—and, above all, how to get there in the first place—often only becomes clear when the process unfolds. This is where being agile pays off. Specifically, this means that the method is so open and fast-paced that adjustments can be made in regular iterations. But where do the initial ideas come from? From the professionals using the products: our customers​.

Of course, new things also need ideas, creativity and unconventional thinking. “But what use are the best products if customers don’t accept them?” says Thomas Beck, an expert in application development in minimally invasive surgery at B. Braun. Aesculap product users have the highest demands. Surgery is often a matter of life and death. “A fraction of a millimeter often determines the success of an operation,” explains Beck. Every movement needs to be perfect, which means that every device needs to be perfectly manageable. “The real experts are the surgeons,” says Beck. “That’s why it’s crucial to listen to them, and take their requirements and suggestions for improvement seriously—and to observe them while they are working.”

Visions and wishes

On a wintry Friday, this is exactly what is going on at the Aesculap Academy in Berlin. B. Braun hosted a conference on the future of minimally invasive surgery: “Where will MIS laparoscopy be in 2040?”. Eleven surgeons from Chile, Germany, France, Poland, the USA and the UK are meeting experts from B. Braun to discuss their profession's future. They give lectures, report on practical requirements and outline scenarios for surgery fifteen years from now. Above all, they are talking about what they want. The B. Braun representatives listen intently, taking notes and exchanging ideas. “These events take place regularly,” says Elisabeth Schneider, an engineering specialist for minimally invasive surgery. “At least twice a year, on different continents. The closer the conversation with our customers is, the better the product development is.”​

In the afternoon, theory turns into practice. The surgeons work with visualization prototypes. They test future products in small groups. B. Braun employees instruct them and observe them closely: How does this product feel in their hand? How does a cable move when changing positions? Which structures are recognizable under what kind of light? Thomas Beck explains: “These live presentations represent just one part of our work with customers. It is just as important to be in the operating room and analyze product handling with products that have already been introduced.” Beck and Schneider emphasize, “The focus is on pursuing an exchange of expertise with the surgeons, as well as learning about their perspective and feedback. Our goal is to develop the best products – and we need our customers’ expertise to do this.”

They are happy to pass on their experience. Dr. Katharina Feilhauer, Senior Surgeon for general, abdominal and transplant surgery at Stuttgart Hospital, for example. “I value these meetings. This is about sharing experiences and my expertise as a surgeon. One example is Aesculap's new generation of the Caiman^® products for vascular sealing in open and laparoscopic surgery. My suggestions were incorporated directly into the ongoing development process. It was important to me that the device provides me with immediate and reliable feedback, such as when the seal is complete. These details make a huge difference in surgical practice.”

Small change, big impact

But surgeons aren't the only medical practitioners with valuable knowledge about optimizing medical devices. This also applies to other medical professionals, especially nursing staff. Around 10,000 kilometers away from Berlin, on the Malaysian island of Penang, a small team continues to work on the development of a venous catheter. With the Introcan Safety^® 2 IV, the team led by YongJi Fu, head of R&D, achieved a breakthrough: an integrated membrane to reduce the chance of blood leakage when changing the needle—an important safety aspect for staff.

At B. Braun in Malaysia, Yie Miin Lee, the in-house nurse, played a key role. She started her career as a nurse in Singapore before returning to Malaysia and joining B. Braun. She has been working closely with nursing staff for seven years, in order to incorporate their experience into the product development process. “I made myself invisible during the development of Introcan Safety^® 2,” she says with a laugh. She shadowed nursing staff in the hospital without influencing processes and meticulously recorded how the product—which had already been introduced—was being used. “We wanted to design the innovation in such a way that the handling remained virtually unchanged,” she explains. She shared her observations with the engineering team in the laboratory, who then made adjustments. The approach was successful: the new Introcan Safety^® 2 received several awards, including the iF Design Award 2024 in Gold.​

What really helps in everyday practice?

When it comes to answering the question of how customers in the health care sector can be supported, the key response is: anything that saves time and simplifies processes is most welcome. A team of roughly 70 people from Melsungen, Barcelona, Budapest, Freiburg and Berlin is working on NEXADIA^® Next Generation—a comprehensive data, information and management system for dialysis.

These days, dialysis documentation is often on paper or in spreadsheets. This can be automated with NEXADIA^® Next Generation. “One surprising result of our surveys was that every change in technology initially represents a cognitive challenge for customers. But everyone we spoke to said that they are happy to face this complexity—because the relief is immediately tangible,” said Tabea Schießl, human factors engineer. But NEXADIA^® Next Generation will not only bring benefits for the staff operating the dialysis machines. Patients will also benefit. “The key term is predictive medicine,” explains René Müller: “The dialysis machines can collect a lot of data that is currently unused. For example, how dialysis performance and the patient’s medical parameters relate to each other.” This allows nephrologists to draw valuable conclusions. For all this to work, the dialysis machines have to be connected to a complex data infrastructure. The international teams work in small groups at the workshop in Melsungen, in order to do just that. They still have a good six months before the system has to be market-ready. “There’s still a lot to do,” says René Müller. “At the same time, we as a team are committed and convinced to deliver.”