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Who are you and what do you do?

I am Eamon O’ Connell and I am a design engineer.

I help customers innovate in the field of patient care.

How would you sum up your company?

ProTek Medical is a medical technology company; employees are encouraged to be innovative and creative.

To be innovative requires freedom, the be a world class manufacturing supplier to the medical device industry requires strict controls, finding the balance is key to ensuring innovative medical technologies are manufactured in a highly regulated system.

Name a business achievement you are most proud of.

The products we design and manufacture are used by our customers globally to provide a better quality of patient care.

There is a great sense of pride when the devices that ProTek Medical design and manufacture are used to provide a better quality of care. Connecting directly with the patient’s needs ensures that our design and manufacturing focus is the same as our customers and we take the same level of responsibility and pride when lifesaving therapies are employed.

What excites you about this industry?

This industry had changed considerably in the past two decades. Companies that focus on regulatory compliance through structured process development processes such as process validation embed themselves as strategic suppliers. When you add in the design capability the engagement with customers changes to more of a partnership approach.

The industry rewards suppliers that offer innovation as a capability, minimally invasive therapies challenge what can be designed and manufactured at a micro level with new materials and polymer blends emerging with unique properties.

Where do you predict industry growth will come from over the next 12 months?

There is definitely a confidence in the life science market and in particular the domestic Irish market - it is a matter of being well positioned with the necessary resource and capacity to react to the demand. Speed to market is an important factor for our customers and this can be best achieved from a fully integrated design and manufacturing process.

Which medical plastic device do you wish you had invented and why?

That is what makes working in ProTek Medical so rewarding, every day our design and engineering group innovate and I get the chance to contribute to the innovation process. I believe bio absorbable materials such as poly(DL-lactic acid) and poly(L-lactic acid) will play a major role in future minimal invasive therapies such as bio absorbable, drug eluting stents.