My Houstonian Welcome Party has been filled with humidity, Hurricane Harvey, and healthcare innovation- not to say the three are interconnected but they surely have been the theme of my first month here at Rice. Each unique in its effect and each with its own lesson to teach.

  • Humidity– AC is your best friend in Houston and you’re better off avoiding extended periods of time in the outdoors from the hours of 10am-4pm; however, we manage. I have simply learned to embrace it.
  • Hurricane Harvey– Merely a few days before Hurricane Harvey, some of my fellow colleagues waved off the looming threat of this storm until it actually arrived and sought devastation on the fourth largest city in the country. School was delayed for an entire week, and motivation levels were low, especially when there was no light at the end of the tunnel as to when we could leave our homes, or better yet – when we could walk in the streets that had flooded. I was really impressed with the aftermath of the storm in the camaraderie throughout the entire city from fellow Houston residents and Texan residents alike.

    The street outside my apartment during Hurricane Harvey.

  • Healthcare Innovation– With three projects concurrently rolling, every day I am constantly working or interacting with some aspect of them. Each project targets a different part of the product development process- the front end, back end, and even mentoring a Senior Design team. I will delve more down below!

I must say, graduate school is amazing. Yes it will challenge you, push you to your limits, and consume most of your time but it will make you grow immensely especially in the field you are most passionate about. I am taking five classes total, two of which are electives. The other three are GMI courses, where we work on our design and implementation projects or accelerating our job searches. My design project is embedded in a GMI course called Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship class, a multidisciplinary class that has a mix of GMI students, MBA students, and cardiovascular doctor fellows working on scoped needs in the area of Cardiology. My team’s focus is on the need to detect endothelialization within stented arteries to minimize drug administration and restenosis. Throughout our development of our project, we have brainstormed several concepts, analyzed our market size, identified potential reimbursement codes, and developed a business model. We still have a ways to go in creating prototypes and a strong business plan for our medical device!

Brainstorming session for Endothelialization project

Low fidelity prototyping one of our stent design concepts.

My implementation project, Stent-X (formerly called Outstenting), also deals with stents but more specifically on pediatric ureteral stents. The main goal is creating a minimally invasive way to remove ureteral stents in the pediatric population, without the use of anesthesia or excessive instrumentation. Currently the method we are working with involves using electromagnetism to pull the stent out of the body. I am working alone on this project so holding myself accountable and time management are crucial! For that reason we each created a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) that covered the objectives we would be completing and their associated deliverables through October. And again, I remind myself of the famous quote, “Plans never work, but planning always does.” I aim to have a working prototype of my ureteral stent by mid-October for the cadaver studies with my sponsors through Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH), Baylor, and Fannin Innovation Studios. Having a close collaboration with these entities, in addition to my project holding an SBIR grant, has really accelerated the pace at which we move. Last week we performed a large animal study on our current ureteral stent design and we plan to run another one next month. I have also had the opportunity to observe a robotic laparoscopic pyeloplasty surgery at TCH, which depicted to me the process leading up to the stent insertion. Lastly, I am also a teacher’s assistant/mentor for a Bioengineering Senior Design group that is also working a pediatric urology medical device with TCH.

Tools table in the surgery room for our large animal study.

In complement to these projects, we will soon be having a series of hospital rotations in which we observe different procedures at Texas Children’s Hospital, Methodist Hospital, and Emergency Medicine on ambulances. We hope to each compile 100 “needs” (that’s a total of 1,000 needs!) that we identify by the end of our observations. With just this month alone, GMI has not only exceeded my expectations but really has helped me find what I am most passionate about in the medical device industry. We are given so many opportunities to interact with ambitious and enthusiastic players in Medtech in different positions, who are willing to make our experience even greater. I am looking forward to the months to come!

This week my implementation team (Siri, Abby, and Callie) and Dr. Richardson are making a short and productive visit back to Liberia, Costa Rica to work on DialOasis and Consultika. It’s been less than a month a half since we lived in this beautiful, green country and it feels good to be back! We have a packed schedule the next few days meeting with Invenio University, doctors in Canas, and doctors at Hospital Liberia.

First stop in Costa Rica- Playa Hermosa!

In the spirit of being back in Costa Rica… Pura Vida!