Designing Medical Devices for a Circular Future

Bougainville Thrush

28-09-2025

To ensure the health of the prophet of the Bird Village, the disciples scrambled to make preparation: nutritious vegetables, mashed cornmeal, soft rice, herbs, etc. Only fish was absolutely absent because that was the principle of the practice. This one ultimate rule could not be violated.

In “No-Fish Dietary”; Wild Wise Weird [1]

© Wix

The healthcare sector is a significant contributor to global emissions, resource use, and waste, largely due to its heavy reliance on single-use medical devices. A recent study in Resources, Conservation & Recycling highlights how adopting circular strategies—such as reusing, repairing, and recycling—can transform medical device design, reducing environmental impacts while maintaining safety and performance standards [2].

Traditionally, medical devices have followed a linear “make-use-dispose” model. Circular design, by contrast, seeks to extend product lifespans and minimize waste by applying a hierarchy of “R-strategies”: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, and Recover [3,4]. These strategies aim to keep materials circulating at their highest value for as long as possible, aligning healthcare innovation with planetary health objectives [5].

Through a systematic review of 28 studies, the authors identified 12 design methods that integrate circular principles into medical device development. The most common were life cycle assessment (LCA) and material flow analysis, which pinpoint environmental “hotspots” across a product’s lifespan. Other methods—such as bare minimum design and disassembly analysis—emphasize simplifying devices to make them easier to clean, repair, or reuse. Notably, nine of the twelve methods focused on redesigning existing devices, most often during the analysis and evaluation stages of the design process [2].

Transitioning to circular medical devices is not without obstacles. Regulatory requirements, sterilization standards, and cost pressures remain formidable barriers. Nevertheless, the study suggests that hybrid approaches, combining analytical tools like LCA with more generative design methods, offer a promising path forward. Embedding circularity into healthcare design is crucial not only for shrinking the sector’s environmental footprint but also for protecting the health of both people and the planet.

Beyond environmental gains, circular strategies strengthen the resilience of healthcare systems. By recognizing medical devices as part of broader ecological and material cycles, healthcare leaders, engineers, and policymakers can cultivate a higher Nature Quotient (NQ)—the capacity to perceive and act on the deep interconnections between human well-being and ecological health [6]. A higher NQ can drive innovations that simultaneously serve patients and the planet [7].

References

[1] Vuong QH. (2024). Wild Wise Weird. https://books.google.com/books?id=N10jEQAAQBAJ

[2] Leemans M, de Koeijer B, Tuijthof GJM. (2026). Adopting circular strategies in medical device development: Mapping of methods along the engineering design process. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 225, 108577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2025.108577

[3] Kirchherr J, Reike D, Hekkert M. (2017). Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 127, 221-232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005

[4] Reike D, Vermeulen WJV, Witjes S. (2018). The circular economy: new or refurbished as CE 3.0?–Exploring controversies in the conceptualization of the circular economy through a focus on history and resource value retention options. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 135, 246-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.08.027

[5] Karliner J, et al. (2019). Health care’s climate footprint: how the health sector contributes to the global climate crisis and opportunities for action. Health Care Without Harm.

[6] Vuong QH, Nguyen MH. (2025). On Nature Quotient. Pacific Conservation Biology, 31, PC25028. https://doi.org/10.1071/PC25028

[7] Nguyen MH. (2024). How can satirical fables offer us a vision for sustainability? Visions for Sustainability, 23(11267), 323-328. https://doi.org/10.13135/2384-8677/11267