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the[PACK]out: Inaugural Event Delivers Medical Device Packaging Innovation

The new conference in Austin, TX, (May 10-12, 2022) highlighted design, sustainability, and usability, developed for and by the medical packaging community.

the{PACK]out: Day 3 featured hands-on workshops to bring package design concepts to life. (Image courtesy: Cassie Ladd)
the{PACK]out: Day 3 featured hands-on workshops to bring package design concepts to life. (Image courtesy: Cassie Ladd)

In the face of looming sustainability and safety regulations, many medical device manufacturers are looking for ways to update packaging and solve supply challenges.

Professionals from the medical device packaging community came together and created the[PACK]out to deliver engaging education and career development. The 3-day event took place in Austin, TX, from May 10 to 12, 2022, and offered insights into new package designs, sustainability, industry initiatives, and more.

As Oliver Healthcare Packaging’s Jenn Goff explained in the opening remarks in the river view conference room, “It takes a community to pull something like this off. We reached out to industry and asked, ‘What would you expect if you came to a new invigorating event?’ We wanted attendees to experience the caliber of event that inspires innovation, connection, and action." 

The event featured tracks for Foundational and Tenured presentations, offering options for experienced and new professionals to hear from peers about design, sustainability, and usability in medical device packaging. A seasoned nurse attended the conference and opened sterile packaging on video in a simulated field. She discussed what packaging features helped and hurt the presentation in her expert opinion. Thoughtful touches throughout the event included natural light, refillable snack containers, and opportunities for professional development. 

Shift to chaotic innovation

The conference kicked off with a keynote from Nick Webb, CEO at LeaderLogic, speaker, and med device patent holder, candidly discussing the ups and downs he’s faced in developing products. He challenged attendees to embrace the state of chaotic change that healthcare has transitioned toward, which tends to be asymmetrical vs. safe, incremental change. People don’t know where it’s coming from next, he said.

Connected packaging has an important role to play—provided that that connection delivers value beyond being a shiny new toy—such as point-of-use validation and traceability. “Packages will be connected in some form—where they are, how they’re being used. In life-critical implants, can we communicate that it’s sterile just prior to use? What can we do in connection architecture? If something can be connected, it will be connected… and it will deliver far better enterprise value and patient value,” Webb said. New offerings should be layered and dynamic—a smart phone isn’t just a phone, but a GPS, and a connected node to knowledge.

The experience economy has permeated nearly every facet of society from retail to healthcare to work life. People are now more aware of how product and package interactions feel. While asking users what they like tends to be the norm, Webb pointed out that looking at what features they hate can yield better insights.

Highlighting the benefits of design hackathons to bring stakeholders together to make improvements, he said it’s important to note that packaging doesn’t serve one monolithic person, so these events should bring people together across a variety of titles and touchpoints for the package. It may be wise to first perform an internal hackathon in your organization with people from engineering, design, production, and sales, and then hold one among users to show “how to improve across moments of engagement.”

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