I have not worked for a medical device development company either. When it comes to scope creep I think the ways it can occur are very different and there are countless ways where it can’t be prevented. In the example that was mentioned in the lecture, when there isn’t enough money to have your device do as much as you want, could be prevented during the planning phase. Costs should be researched to where you have a pretty good estimation of what your device will do. Of course there will be some rare cases where those costs won’t be accurately known until the time you need them.
There will also be scope creep that can’t be prevented in cases where new regulations and new customer demands come up. You can do all the proper research for the scope you have but if there are things out of your control that come up down the line you will need to adapt and adjust.