Curt Larsen
Senior Consultant, Packaging Engineer

Professional Experience

Curt Larsen is a consultant to the medical device industry, with more than 30 years of experience in the field of packaging.  Areas of expertise include package design, development and performance qualification, material selection and evaluation, manufacturing process development, equipment selection and validation, and package shelf life test protocols and testing.

• Curt has been a consultant to the industry for the past 7 years with clients such as DuPont, Medtronic, MedRad, and St. Jude Medical.  Other clients have been manufacturers of:  catheters, blood oxygenators, blood pumps, surgical and diagnostic kits, ocular implants, urinary incontinence products, breast implants, heart pacemakers, heart valves and implantable cardiac leads.
   
• Prior to becoming a consultant, Curt spent over 30 years working in the Medical Device industry for Zimmer, Medtronic, Angiomedics (Schnieder / SciMed Life Systems / Boston Scientific), Medical Incorporated and Smith Medical (Deltec, Inc.).
   
• While working for Deltec, Curt was involved with activities that included the design, development, qualification and implementation of new product packaging assemblies for sterile single use disposable and non-sterile products, and validation of all critical packaging processes.  Other activities included:
  • Development and implementation of test methodologies for evaluation of incoming packaging materials, in-process packaging operations and finished product package assemblies.
  • Investigate, resolve and document all package and labeling customer field complaints.
  • Developed a process that performs and controls in house label printing.
  • Implemented cost reduction projects for a net savings of $500,000.00 per year.
     
• While working for Medtronic, Curt was involved with activities such as:
  • Performed activities required to implement shrink packaging systems (design, select materials, select machinery, and documentation) for three facilities - two in Puerto Rican and one in Minneapolis.
  • Implemented manufacturing of forty (40) new sterile packaged medical device products.
  • Developed package production department layout, equipment selection, purchase, tooling, delivery, installation and start up activities for Puerto Rico and U.S. manufacturing facilities.

Curt is actively involved in industry activities, task forces and working groups.

• He is a member of the ASTM Board of Directors of Committee F02, Flexible Barriers, and has served as the chairman of Subcommittee F02.60, Medical Packaging.  He is an active member of the ASTM F04 Medial Product Committee, D10 Packaging Committee and the F02 Flexible Barriers Committee.
   
• He is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Packaging Working Group; past co-Chair of the AAMI Packaging working group and co-author of the initial draft of ISO 11607 “Packaging for terminally sterilized medical devices”, and he is a member of the ISO/EN harmonization revision task group.
   
• He is a member of the Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP) and serves as a co-Chair of the Medical Device Packaging Technical Committee.  He is also a member of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) and American Society of Quality (ASC).

Curt holds a Bachelor of Science in Packaging from Michigan State University, and is a member of the Industry Advisory Committee of the MSU School of Packaging as well as a member of the Industrial Advisory Board for the University of Wisconsin – Stout Packaging Program.  He was selected by Canon Communications “Medical Device & Diagnostics Industry” magazine as one of the 100 Notable People in the Medical Device Industry.

Publications & Presentations

Curt is the author and co-author of numerous articles on packaging and he has presented at various technical symposiums and lectured at several universities on the topic of medical packaging.