My Journey to a Medical Human Factors Career
By: Rory Klingensmith
My Journey to a Medical Human Factors CareerLevel 1: The Choice
In college, we are challenged with the daunting prospect of funneling ourselves into one category that may serve as the biggest part of our identity for the next 40 years – choosing a major. My mom studied nursing and my dad studied civil engineering, but I did not want to work in healthcare or design bridges and buildings. I liked science, math, and solving puzzles (my favorite video game growing up was Portal 2), so I thought, “why not do it all – healthcare and engineering?” This reasoning led me to select biomedical engineering as my major. It was the perfect combination of learning how to help heal people and build things, without having to go to medical school or wear a hard hat.
Level 2: The Inspiration
During my studies, I discovered there were prosthetics that could be controlled by the brain’s electrical signals, artificial organs grown from a few cells, catheters that could complete an aortic valve replacement surgery with only one tiny incision in the thigh, football helmets inspired by the skulls of woodpeckers, ALS patients re-gifted their speech just by moving their eyes, and gloves that allow a person to climb walls and ceilings (real-life Spiderman!)¹
Although I knew I would not become Spiderman, I wanted to be a part of this fascinating industry. I chose a concentration in biomechanics and human performance because there are so many real-life applications in this field, which is why I am so passionate about it. Did you know that women are more likely to tear their ACL because they are more quad-dominant than men? Did you know adding weight to your air squats could delay your family history of osteoporosis from impacting your bones?
Level 3: The Experience
When designing a medical device, the first step is defining a medical need and the next step is devoting all of your energy into building the details of the design. This could mean years of prototyping, testing, and reiterating. After all of that progress, all an engineer really wants to see is the medical need they initially defined finally get addressed! Observing the intended user safely use the medical device in the intended use environment is the key milestone at the end of the project.
Level 4: The Boss Level
I enjoy it when participants mention that they “would love to have a device like this in their house.” It is an even more gratifying feeling when a product gets FDA approval or clearance and is sent to market after several years of work. My career path may have started out as a shot in the dark, but now I realize that I have always been in the right place. At Core, I’m seeing the most important perspective one can have in design: the human one.