Siemens Software Saves Time and Money on Medical Prototypes

Vyaire Medical (Vyaire) is a global market leader in the field of health technology. Their portfolio includes respiratory products for the treatment of numerous respiratory diseases. To ensure that its products are tailored as accurately as possible to the individual situation of the relevant patient, Vyaire uses precise models based on scans of actual human heads during development. Another essential aspect for the efficient development process is the digital twin of products, which Vyaire creates using software solutions from Siemens Digital Industries Software. This enables the company to largely eliminate physical prototypes, which saves time and money.

Each person takes between 17,000 and 23,000 breaths in a 24-hour period – mostly without any conscious effort. In the event of serious illness, something as simple as breathing can become a struggle between life and death. Vyaire Medical develops special respiratory products for exactly these situations. “Traditionally we were forced to use simplified models in the development of a respiratory mask. We would have used a simplified head model for our CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics, Ed.) simulations, with idealized breathing holes for the nose and the mouth,” says Dr. Christopher Varga, senior engineering fellow and senior director of research and development at Vyaire Medical. “Today we are using scans of actual human heads – different morphologies of actual patient features.”

Reduced development times can save lives

Patients differ not only physically, but also in their way of breathing. In addition, each patient has a unique breathing profile that depends on their lung function and structure. All of these factors can be taken into account in the simulation of a breathing human. “We are starting to build a library of patient morphologies, which already consists of representative patient geometries for all of the patient populations: adult, paediatric and infant,” explains Varga. Vyaire also makes the most of the opportunities offered by simulation on another level, using Simcenter STAR-CCM+ simulation software from Siemens.

“Having the capability to develop a digital twin of our products using Simcenter allows us to significantly reduce development times by removing the time-consuming process of building and testing physical prototypes,” says Varga. He believes that the biggest benefit realised by the Siemens solution is time. “We can make products much quicker and that of course is very important in today’s environment.”