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Designing the Future of Healthcare: Medical Robotics
Imagine empowering surgeons with the ability to perform minimally invasive procedures with sub-millimeter precision. Imagine giving them the tools that open the door to new ways of treating medical conditions that are less invasive, improve outcomes, and speed up patients' recovery. Imagine the net benefit to individuals, communities, and the healthcare system as a whole when providers have tools that amplify their ability to deliver care.
Over the last three decades, medical robotics has evolved from experimental technologies to a central role in healthcare. They bring new precision, efficiency, and safety to how clinicians deliver healthcare. And as medical robotics become more advanced, more accessible, and more cost-effective, they are transforming how the world practices medicine.
“Engineers and innovators are not short on ideas for developing life-changing devices; but industrial designers are essential to their adoption. Designers make their concepts more intuitive and usable for surgeons, nurses, or clinicians.”
Delivering the Best in Design
Designing medical robotics still calls for the fundamentals of product design. Medical professionals, accustomed to the impeccable design of their iPhones, the intuitive interfaces of Tesla's cars, and the seamless usability of Sonos systems, naturally carry their high expectations for exceptional design into their workplaces. When introducing medical robotics into their practices, they demand nothing short of effortless usability, assistance with intricate tasks, and unwavering confidence in the equipment's capabilities.
While engineers and innovators are not short on ideas for developing life-changing devices, industrial design is essential to their adoption. Designers make their concepts more intuitive and usable for surgeons, nurses, or clinicians. Designers can make ideas scalable from a manufacturing perspective. Designers can help investors see, believe in, and commit to the promise of new technology. Across the development process, designers now play a central role in determining the success or failure of medical devices and robotics.
“Instead of working with clients in a traditional agency-client relationship, success depends on the external designers becoming an integral part of the internal team.”
A Specialized Field of Industrial Design
In designing medical robotics, we discovered that the industrial design process transcends the conventional practices used to create products. Not only is the technology more complex, but the stakes are higher. One of the most profound revelations we've uncovered in this field is the need to shift the partnership model. Instead of working with clients in a traditional agency-client relationship, success depends on the external designers becoming an integral part of the internal team. Developing medical robotics requires deep collaboration between engineers, medical professionals, manufacturers, and patients—to better understand what's needed and possible, rethink processes, and identify ways to maximize the value creation formula. Industrial design now plays a critical role in facilitating this collaboration.
The distinct nature of medical robotics requires what I term holistic design. In this context, we hold the product experience as a cohesive entity rather than a sum of individual parts. The interactions between the clinician's hands and eyes, the physical robot, and the digital interface must flawlessly merge into one seamless and unified experience. Only when a robot becomes a natural extension of a clinician's visual and tactile capabilities does it become a tool that amplifies their ability to improve outcomes and save lives.
“Instead of working with clients in a traditional agency-client relationship, success depends on the external designers becoming an integral part of the internal team.”
Becoming the Translators on Teams
The product development process for medical robotics begins with research, which falls under the purview of Clinical Engineering (CE). CE identifies the numerous user needs the product must address and communicates these to the engineering team. Designers serve as conduits in this exchange, translating the research findings into a language engineers understand. For example, the most immediate way to build bridges of understanding on a team is through swift freehand sketches. From these sketches, designers can rapidly gain alignment, prototype concepts, refine, and manifest the device in ways that align the entire team behind a vision. Moving from sketches to 3D CAD and renderings helps everyone on the cross-functional teams visualize all their work.
Designers also play a central role in translating the vision for a product to investors. Noteworthy pioneers in medical robotics, such as Intuitive Surgical, placed designers in pivotal roles in their organizations. Designers were integral in securing critical funding rounds by creating prototypes, intricately detailed renderings, and dynamic animations. Drawing on inspiration from Silicon Valley's start-up culture, medical robotics entrepreneurs lean into design to establish a presence for their groundbreaking innovations that can garner attention from industry giants such as Medtronic, J&J, and Boston Scientific.
Those of us in the design field constantly ask how our work can create a lasting impact. Unquestionably, medical robotics ranks among the paramount contenders. To design medical robotics is to define the future of healthcare. Crafting products that transcend their underlying technology to save lives embodies design driven by purpose.
“Instead of working with clients in a traditional agency-client relationship, success depends on the external designers becoming an integral part of the internal team.”
“Instead of working with clients in a traditional agency-client relationship, success depends on the external designers becoming an integral part of the internal team.”
