Medical devices play an increasingly important role in clinical treatments. From surgical tools to permanent implants, they are both the key of a successful treatment and often the source of adverse reactions. Success or failure most of the times will depend on events occurring on the medical device - human tissue interface, which typically are heavily influenced by the biomaterial surface properties. Therefore, surface treatment and coating technologies constitute powerful tools in the development of new devices and improvement of the performance of existing ones.

We will review a number of surface technologies that are applied on medical devices, as well as a number of case studies where issues such as infection resistance or tissue integration of medical devices are addressed through the development of new surfaces.

Lecturer: Iñigo Braceras Izagirre -TECNALIA (San Sebastián, Spain)

Industrial Engineer (Ingeniero Técnico Superior Industrial) from the University of Navarra (1994) and MBA (Master in Business Administration) from Robert Kennedy Collegue (2005). He has worked since 1998 in various aspects of surface engineering, first at Inasmet , and later at Tecnalia R,D&I center. He has also worked in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Industry , in the guidelines for implementation of technical directives (LVD , EMC, etc. ) and as promoter in the spin -off Lifenova Biomedical. Throughout his career he has led national and international projects, mainly of private nature , in the field of surface engineering applied in different sectors. He has published more than 30 international publications , is inventor of 4 patents. He is a member of the European Joint Committee on Plasma and Ion Surface Engineering (EJC / PISE ) and of the international scientific committee of the International Conference on Plasma Surface Engineering (PSE), among other committee participations.