Florida International Medical Expo (FIME) 2010

FIME is an annual medical expo held at Miami Beach Conference Center located in Miami Beach. It is a Medical tradeshow which features Medical Manufactures and Industry Experts from all over the globe strategically positioned in over half a million sq. ft. of exhibition space. It displays innovative medical equipment and supplies used in hospitals, physician offices, medical laboratories and medical supply stores. Some of these equipments and supplies consisted of automated wheelchairs, x-ray machines, diabetic testing devices and for the beauty conscious self proclaimed creams to cure all conditions such as ache, allergic rashes and burns.
We were privileged to attend this expo which is mainly reserved for doctors, pharmacists and other medical professionals. This was particularly enlightening for those students who are interested in manufacturing their own medical equipment. This expo will be of significant importance to those students in the future when they are ready to place their products on the market. It will be the ideal place for them to showcase their inventions and acquire distributers for their products.

We beat the downtown Miami traffic to reach at the FIME 2010. I was wheeled into convention center by my very supportive colleagues (that explanation comes later). There we registered and collected our ID tags complete with Qcodes.
For those not in the know the Florida International Medical Expo (FIME) is one of the largest expos for the medical industry in North America. It is held in downtown Miami at the Miami Beach Convention. It is where the who’s who in the industry comes to show off their latest wares and where the small upstarts seek out their piece of this multibillion dollar pie. How does a medical expo and a master’s program which is focused heavily on innovation and entrepreneurial activity in manufacturing relate? And why was I was being wheeled around in the first place are probably some of your first thoughts. The former is relevant as the medical industry is not simply Tylenol and Benadryl but encompasses everything from laser cut surgical tools to Ip based bedside nurse calling systems to physiotherapy equipment and even new high mobility wheel chairs. Yes, high mobility wheel chairs.

This is about perspective and opportunity; after some amateur heroics on the football field a few weeks prior I was left without ambulatory mobility. As a result of being wheel chair bound for the duration of the expo my perspective was that of a paraplegic where my eye line was at waist height of the average person as well was my reach. So as we traversed the expo I got to talking with my colleagues discussing possible designs for a wheel chair that does not limit its user to a static position. Just as I had that thought we turned the corner of one of the many aisles within the labyrinth of an expo and arrived at the Salzgitter Morex Enterprises (SAMORE) booth. There it was the SMC-S2 electric wheel chair which enables the user to not only get from place to place at the touch of a finger; literally, but also allows the user to raise themselves to reach and commute in a completely upright and erect position.

What is most striking is not the technology used which actually is not as advanced as it sounds but the seizing of an opportunity. It is an example of manufacturer looking at a problem through the eyes of the user, or perhaps attempting to capitalize on the success of other seated mobility chairs. It is also interesting that this chair though designed by SAMORE is actually a well assembled composite of independently manufactured parts. Thus it begs the question could this have been designed in Trinidad and Tobago? The SMC-S2 electric wheel chair retails for $4000- 6000 USD. And through conversations with the company representative discovered they do have a distributor for the Caribbean.

My recent Hand Therapy Kit project developed during the design stream of the IIEM programme at UTT had reached the prototyping stage and it was at the process of seeking manufacturers for full scale production had commenced. On entering the FIME 2010 exhibition I visited booths which had anything to do with design, electro-medical and manufacturing. After passing out a couple business cards, I encountered a booth that displayed most of the products I used as research for my project. Fabrication Enterprises Incorporated is the manufacturers and mass distributers of the major physiotherapy products in the present market. Because of my prior knowledge of the products they were impressed and gave me their undivided attention. The representatives re-iterated the company’s policy of accepting new ideas and working with the designer to develop the product and following this I pitched my recent work on my design project and business plan which they were enthusiastic about.

This meeting alone was worthwhile as a personal face to face conversation with the representatives of the manufacturers gave me the opportunity to express my idea freely and gather as much information that I could. The one on one meeting was a plus as Mr. Drucker one of the representatives even expressed his familiarity with Trinis as he knows one in the Wall Street business who was as skinny as me. Overall it was a perfect opportunity for me which would open up potential relations, this I captured without second thought. The representatives gave offers of half price off products some of which I bought for further experimentation and as a token of appreciation to some of the therapists who gave a helping hand towards the prototype that we have today.

Authors: Maria, Dwayne, & Daryl