Business situation
Pulsecor is a medical device company developing the next generation of non-invasive cardiovascular assessment technology. The technology had been developed over a period of 9-10 years into a solution based on a laptop connected to a custom data-collection device but as Andrew Lowe, CTO, conceded, “this was a lot of gear to lug around and we were under pressure to get the technology into a portable form factor quickly.”
The Solution
Andrew says they looked at the available options and chose Device Solution’s product for two key reasons. Firstly, the Tahoe Development kit enabled C# programming and the existing algorithms were in the same language. Secondly, the kit had all the hardware functionality Pulsecor required, including extensive input-output and a high-quality display.
Development time halved
It took less than 3 months to get the solution off the laptop and onto the Tahoe board and Andrew was surprised at how fast they were able to achieve this. He explains that the alternative would have taken at least 6 months and been much more expensive. Using the Tahoe board allowed them to avoid a lot of hardware and driver development, as well as allowing Pulsecor to reuse existing C# source code. “We didn’t need an in-depth knowledge of the technology platform – we’re a medical solutions company not systems integrators.”
Andrew states that “had we chosen another product, we would have needed to develop our own carrier board with someone else’s chip on it.” Device Solutions have simplified the project since Pulsecor have been able to incorporate the Tahoe development kit directly into their device, allowing them to concentrate on their core expertise: medical electronics and software.
Continuous Improvement
Any decision to commit to a particular technology has an inherent risk component but Andrew’s confident that, Device Solution’s product development path will ensure this is negligible. The release of the Tahoe II Development Kit is imminent and Andrew is positive it will help meet the increasingly more sophisticated needs of Pulsecor’s customers. It’s a case of working together for the mutual purpose of continuously improving both Pulsecor and Device Solutions products.