In recent years, the use of ceramics as biomedical materials has been given greater publicity. Even so, the development of ceramics for biomedical applications and their delivery to final prouduct has been slow. Even though people are living longer and the United States is a major market for medical devices, Europe, as noted by Mecholsky has put together a much more integrative effort toward the development of biomaterials (and thus "bio" ceramics) than has the U.S. His points ought be taken carefully, the change in demographics and the advancement of technology are requiring that more medical devices be placed into a larger number of people. Because of both technological advances and the market reality, the future of devices is that they will be implanted into an increasing number of people. As technology advances, devices will be implanted into patients that presentwith less compromising symptoms, they will be implanted into younger and younger patients and those devices will tend to work better. Thus we are seeing a need for materials that will be placed into devices that will enhance the longevity and/or performance of each device.
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