A Framework for Assessing Sustainability Conflicts in the Design of Medical Devices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive framework combining life cycle analysis, cause-effect mapping, and multi-criteria decision analysis to evaluate and resolve sustainability conflicts in medical device design, promoting more sustainable healthcare solutions.

Contribution

It presents a novel, structured framework for assessing and quantifying sustainability conflicts across environmental, economic, and social pillars in medical device development.

Findings

Framework effectively identifies cross-domain conflicts.

Application to oxygen concentrator demonstrates practical utility.

Supports data-driven, sustainable design decisions.

Abstract

Medical devices improve healthcare outcomes but often involve sustainability conflicts across environmental, economic, and social pillars. Existing approaches typically prioritize one or two pillars and lack a unified framework to assess cross-domain conflicts. This paper presents a structured framework to identify and quantify sustainability conflicts in medical device design. It integrates life cycle analysis, cause-effect mapping, and multi-criteria decision analysis to evaluate the impact of design choices across all three pillars. A case study of an oxygen concentrator illustrates the framework's application and generates a composite sustainability score based on identified trade-offs. The framework supports informed and data-driven design decisions while meeting regulatory and ethical requirements. This work addresses a key gap in sustainable medical device development by offering a repeatable and quantifiable approach to conflict assessment and resolution.