A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This phrase by Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, who died in 531 BC and was a contemporary of Confucius, sums up very nicely where things have come in the last 18 months at Medical Plastics News.

The first step on the Medical Plastics News magazine journey was taken two years ago—in November 2010—when I flew to Düsseldorf to visit the Medica and Compamed shows for the first time. The trip was booked after I had presented to my publisher the original idea for a magazine dedicated to medical applications for plastics.

I headed there with the goal of making as many contacts as possible at companies involved in the use of plastics for medical applications. I was pleased to find that the show was a hotbed of advanced medical plastic technologies. By the time I arrived at Compamed the following year, our thousand-mile journey had well and truly begun. In the preceeding twelve months, together with my colleague Gareth Pickering, I had developed and published three issues of a new medical device magazine concept covering the medical plastics supply chain. The model encompasses resin supply and pricing, design and materials selection, machinery and auxiliaries, processing methods including moulding and extrusion, end of line technology, regulation as well as product focuses and clinician reviews.

A year on and I have just returned from my third Compamed and Medica event in a row. Being familiar with the layout of the halls at Messe Düsseldorf certainly helps make the most of the short time available at the event. But representing what is now a recognisable brand in MPN is a big plus when lining up interviews with important industry representatives. Furthermore, our pledge of editorial independence and technical accuracy has clearly built a firm foundation of trust and reassurance in the industry.

Illustrating our achievements so far, Jesper Laursen of Danish compounder Melitek, said to me this month: “I saw your article about DEHP and wanted to commend you on the result. You pulled together information from a lot of interest groups which had the potential to get very complicated. You reported the issues accurately, independently and carefully and this demonstrated your professional skills. You have shown that you are a proper journalist and MPN is a proper magazine.”

Chris James of Monaco-based medical plastics company Promepla also congratulated me. He said: “MPN fills a gap in the industry for plastic manufacturers. It is highly relevant, the content is well researched and insightfully written. Sam—your knowledge of medical is impressive.”

Lao Tzu’s philosophy is helpful because it encourages people to achieve things that they would otherwise deem impossible. By breaking things down into small parts, a task of a size or complexity too great to tangibly conceive instantly becomes achievable. And this is a useful outlook on other aspects of work, as well as life in general.