MiQLab is a point-of-care instrument for rapid molecular testing. Lexagene developed the core PCR-based technology to serve as a platform to utilize their unique set of assays for human and veterinary diagnostics and food safety.
Ximedica contributed industrial design and engineering of the enclosure, the loading bay, and the consumable buffer set. We also utilized our supply chain to source tooling, molded parts, sheet-metal, and machined parts.
roles: tactical lead, lead engineer
Consumable buffer set with click-in assay kit
Front Housing prototype in progress
The Arthrex NanoScope system, launched in 2019, consists of a single-use, chip-on-tip arthroscope and a touchscreen console. I was the tactical lead for the multi-disciplinary consultant team that provided industrial design, mechanical engineering, human factors studies, systems engineering, and risk management for the program. I was also the lead mechanical engineer for both the handpiece and the console and primary point of contact for my counterparts at Arthrex. The project included extensive electro-mechanical integration and multiple trips to visit Asian manufacturing partners.
roles: tactical lead, lead engineer
The Argus II implant, from Second Sight Medical Products, consists of an array of electrodes that transmits energy directly to a patient’s retina. The patient must wear a set of external hardware that includes Eyewear with a camera, RF antenna, and PCB, and a Video Processing Unit (VPU) with user controls.
After achieving FDA approval with a minimally viable set of clinical trials hardware, Second Sight hired Bridge Design to design and develop their next generation of external hardware for the Argus II. Our team performed user research, developed early concepts, and finalized the industrial design. We then executed all of the mechanical engineering, carrying the design through tooling and then supporting SSMP with needed changes as they worked through verification and validation.
I was involved from the beginning, helping to plan the project and then working with industrial design to generate product architecture concepts and user research models. As the project moved into detailed engineering, I managed the program and led the mechanical design, including the advanced surface modelling, mechanism design, and electro-mechanical integration for the Eyewear and VPU. We also did the tolerance analysis, detailed drawings, and vendor selection for the VPU and four SKUs of eyewear, with over 30 molded parts.
roles: lead mechanical engineer, program manager
Accelerate Diagnostics, with its novel, life-saving, diagnostic technology, came to Bridge Design to design and engineer an elegant and highly functional enclosure and simplified consumable with an easy workflow.
Bridge’s highly integrated Engineering and Industrial Design teams collaborated to meet demanding technical requirements in a short time frame. The result streamlined and simplified the user experience, and offered visual excitement to support an emerging brand.
Using Bridge’s trademark multidisciplinary approach, our industrial designers and my engineering team immersed ourselves in the user and technical issues. Simplifying the workflow was of utmost importance to the client, so we set up a mock hospital lab in a section of our design studio. I dove deep into the technical requirements of the consumables in a quest to consolidate 9 discrete items into a single, easy-to-load cartridge that required minimal storage space. We mocked up various concepts for loading and unloading the instrument and received great user feedback from hospital lab technicians.
Bridge’s industrial designers came up with an iconic visual design that proved compact and user-friendly for routine loading and unloading of samples. I led Bridge’s engineering team in working with Accelerate engineers to translate this vision into a cost-conscious solution focused on ease of use, manufacturability, and reliability.
My team of four engineers was responsible for the consumable cartridge (13+ molded parts), all of the enclosure parts on the instrument, the illuminated elements, and all of the instrument’s internal parts and electro-mechanical integration in the cartridge bay. We executed the project through detailed drawings and support of the tooling cycle.
roles: sales, proposal, program manager, lead engineer
"The team at Bridge Design worked closely with us to meld engineering functionality with sophisticated and clean design. The experience was fantastic and the results above expectation. Bridge Design was on schedule, engaged and detailed, and consistently offered thoughtful alternatives. We look forward to collaborating again!"
− Andrew Ghusson, Head of Product Development at Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc
The iRay system, from Oraya Therapeutics, strives to change the paradigm for treatment of macular degeneration. In a quick and painless office procedure, radiotherapy is stereotactically targeted to a posterior area of the patient’s eye.
The company achieved CE Mark in 2010 with an early version of the system that had a sophisticated five axis positioning system and effective x-ray delivery, but needed vast improvements to the fixation of the patient’s head, the physical and digital user experience, and the brand identity.
I led the team that provided industrial design, digital design, and mechanical engineering to elevate the iRay to a safe, user-friendly, confidence-inspiring system that was commercially launched in Europe.
roles: program manager, lead engineer
Medtronic’s Enlite system includes a wearable sensor that provides people with diabetes the convenience of continuous glucose monitoring. In order for the sensor’s delicate cannula to be placed into the subcutaneous layer on the abdomen, the patient must use an insertion device. Medtronic’s prior inserter had been widely criticized by users as difficult to use and sometimes painful.
Medtronic hired Bridge Design to develop a new inserter for the Enlite sensor. Starting from a body of user feedback and immersive knowledge of the lifestyle challenges for people with diabetes, we generated concepts with a focus on usability and ergonomics.
I contributed to concept generation, collaborated with industrial design, and executed the mechanical design of the Serter and its functional packaging.
roles: lead engineer, program manager
The iQue system from Intellicyt is a game-changer in the field of high throughput flow cytometry.
In order to implement and showcase their new proprietary technology, Intellicyt had to kluge together multiple elements on the benchtop, some of them off-the-shelf. It was difficult for potential customers to recognize the value of the system. So they tasked Bridge Design with integrating all of the elements into a single, highly functional instrument that conveyed the incredible value of the underlying technology and then engineering the enclosure and all of its access points.
roles: supervising and contributing engineer
LI-COR is a leader in biotechnology instrumentation and environmental analysis.
I led the enclosure engineering for three of their biotech instruments: the C-Digit, Odyssey CLX, and the Odyssey Fc.
My team and I also made significant conceptual, configuration, and technical contributions to the LI-6800, the world’s leading platform for photosynthesis analysis.
roles: program manager, lead engineer
The TightRail is a rotating dilator sheath for the management and removal of pacemaker leads. Spectranetics Corporation was already a pioneer in laser, fiber-optics systems that are used to manage pacemaker leads. They decided to augment their portfolio and provide physicians with more options by developing a mechanical dilator sheath. The TightRail achieved FDA approval in 2014.
The Spectranetics team had developed a novel, distal-end, rotating cutter that was uniquely safe and effective in extracting cardiac leads from the vasculature. They needed a handle and mechanism that could translate a physical user input into a specified rotational output to the catheter shaft. My team generated concepts and developed the mechanism, researched the human factors and created models for user studies, developed the industrial design, and engineered all the parts of the handle.
roles: program manager, lead engineer
The development of novel intellectual property has been a fun and fulfilling aspect of my career. Here is a complete list of US patents on which I am named as an inventor.
Utility patents:
US11224530B2, Stent delivery catheter with fast slider and slow thumbwheel control
US11160579B2, Multiple configuration surgical cutting device
US10925763B2, Stent delivery catheter with convertible living-hinge for slow to fast retraction
US10669566B2, Instrument and system for rapid microorganism identification and antimicrobial agent susceptibility testing
US10253355B2, Instrument and system for rapid microorganism identification and antimicrobial agent susceptibility testing
US10350059B2, Ocular implant insertion apparatus and methods
US10314615B2, Medical device for removing an implanted object
US10136913B2, Multiple configuration surgical cutting device
US10023895B2, Instrument and system for rapid microogranism identification and antimicrobial agent susceptibility testing
US9320432B2, Analyte Meter Communication Module
US8117608B1, System and method of providing mobility to personal computers
US6712300B2, Methods and apparatus for a quick-change spool system
Design patents:
USD870279S1, Medical device handle
USD854682S1, Medical device handle
USD799056S, Cartridge
USD789884S, Hearing aid battery charging base
USD773685S, Cartridge
USD773048S1, Video processing unit for a visual prosthesis
USD770616S Medical device handle
USD765243S, Medical device handle
USD763344S1, Glasses for a visual prosthesis
USD721704S, Chemiluminescence compact imaging scanner lid
USD650079S, Analyte meter
USD648029S, Analyte meter
USD646787S, Analyte meter
