Leading healthcare and MedTech innovation
through human-centred R&D.
About CDG
We help healthcare and MedTech teams decide what to develop and bring it closer to reality.
CDG combines human and clinical understanding with design and technical exploration to shape medical devices and healthcare products, informing both the product direction and the decisions that move development forward.
Working alongside your team and specialist partners, we provide hands-on development, programme leadership or focused support.
Discuss a projectExpertise
Every project has a different starting point. We shape our involvement around the challenge, your team and what needs to happen next.
Pressure needs to be applied to a surgical site during recovery, but is the answer a garment, a bandage or a separate device? What pressure is needed, for how long, and how will patients manage it in daily life?
CDG works with stakeholders, healthcare professionals and patients to understand the requirements and explore alternative product approaches. Early engagement with manufacturers in China brings materials, construction and physical prototypes into the work, helping shape the brief and inform development.
We manage the day-to-day work, keeping your team involved through regular updates and shared reviews.
An injection-device concept needs an external partner to develop it further. How could it work? How should it be operated? What needs testing through physical prototypes before committing to detailed development?
CDG takes responsibility for a defined development workstream under your direction. We develop the design, mechanisms and CAD, then build, test and refine the product and move development forward.
Your team sets the priorities and guides the work through regular reviews. We handle practical development and iteration, or act as your person on the ground, liaising with your CDMO or manufacturing partners to keep the work aligned with your requirements.
A surgical-device programme is progressing, but alternative approaches need exploring without diverting the internal team. Could a different interaction, mechanism or material offer a better solution?
CDG develops alternative concepts alongside your internal programme, with agreed review points to share findings and challenge assumptions.
Concepts from both workstreams come together in joint testing and simulated-use exploration, comparing approaches and identifying what to take forward. Your team maintains momentum while gaining a wider basis for development decisions.
China advantage
Leveraging a China network to explore ideas, resolve uncertainty and move development forwards, connecting product ambition with practical capability.
CDG works from China, connecting healthcare and MedTech teams with technical capability, specialist supply chains and manufacturing partners. We can engage partners early to explore and develop a product, or work alongside your existing CDMO or manufacturer as your local development representative. We maintain direct communication, follow progress and help resolve issues, keeping the work aligned with your product requirements without losing sight of the needs of your users and clinicians.
Experience
Experience across drug delivery, diagnostics, critical care, surgical devices and connected healthcare.
CDG draws on experience guiding multidisciplinary healthcare development programmes, from research and insight building through product direction, design and prototyping, working with specialist teams and partners.
That experience brings an understanding of how clinical, technical and commercial considerations influence product decisions, and what it takes to turn a promising concept into a practical development programme.
The person behind CDG.
Founder | Healthcare and MedTech innovation.
Founder portrait / placeholderCharles is a design and innovation leader with experience building multidisciplinary teams and leading healthcare product development.
Based in China for 20 years, he founded his earlier consultancy, caisdesign associates, in 2011, later bringing its healthcare portfolio and client relationships into PDD Shanghai. Over nine years, he built and led its healthcare innovation capability, spanning research, human factors, design and engineering.
His work combines hands-on product development with responsibility for team leadership, business direction and client relationships.
CDG brings that experience into a new independent practice, working with clients and specialist partners to shape products and guide development.
View Charles on LinkedIn
Contact
For a new product opportunity, a development challenge or support building R&D capability, get in touch.
discuss@caisdesigngroup.com
