Pura Vida!
Hope everyone had a great weekend! This past week was my fifth week working at MicroVention and the company continued the validation process for transferring the BOBBY (balloon guide catheter) production line from California to Costa Rica (I learned this process takes a couple of months to complete due to all the testing and documentation). At the beginning of the week, I finished redlining/editing my assigned documents, adding pictures and justifications so that we could leverage these documents to include the BOBBY product rather than creating new ones for it. Later during the week, Karthik reviewed the BOBBY design and development plan with me, explaining how the project started and the unique design of this product. This was very interesting as I learned that BOBBY is in fact two catheters combined into one, using part of the dead space in between to inflate its balloon. I learned how each one of these catheters (inflation lumen and guide wire) not only have different sizes, but also different metal strand structure and thus different properties. Here’s a picture of the product, and you guys can check out this website if you want to learn more specifics.
I also helped out the transfer team with the validation process in the clean room when I was free. It’s one thing learning about this process from a PowerPoint slide, however seeing it in action clarifies a lot and really helps you understand exactly how and why this validation process is performed. More specifically, I got to see how the process operational qualification (POQ) was performed and learned how the process performance qualification (PPQ) would follow. Basically, in the POQ stage there must be 1 lot tested when all the equipment is set to the lowest parameter settings allowed in the protocol, and another lot tested with the highest allowed parameters. Once the products built from these lots and settings pass testing, the PPQ stage begins and now 3 lots must be tested with the equipment set to the optimal parameter settings set in the protocol. Only when both these procedures pass may the product begin to be distributed by the company. I will also note that if any of these lots fail testing or not enough units are successfully built to perform testing, a new lot has to be manufactured and retested.
After finishing what felt like a long week at work, my friends and I went to visit Manuel Antonio National Park! On Saturday we took the EARLY early bus in the morning (6:45 AM) and got to Manuel Antonio around 10 AM. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and left for the beach. It was really cloudy, and it started to rain a bit, so we went back early to eat lunch and relax at the hotel. We went to the beach one more time after it stopped raining before it got dark, but it was too cloudy to see the sunset 🙁 We still made the most of it and enjoyed the waves at the beach 🙂 On Sunday we woke up early and went to the Manuel Antonio National Park, which was the BEST part of the trip! Arguably the best part of my Costa Rica trip yet. We first walked through the trails and got to see so many animals. We saw monos (monkeys), perezosos (sloths), and largatos (lizards)! Here are the best pictures of them.
After walking through the trail, we relaxed and enjoyed the beach for the rest of the day. The beach was beautiful, one of the best beaches I’ve ever been to, and the weather was amazing, bright and sunny. Here are some pictures of the beach for you guys to check out.
This was another great week in Costa Rica and it’s a little sad we are over the halfway mark. I have enjoyed my time thus far working for MicroVention and exploring Costa Rica and will continue to make the most of it while I’m here! Hope everyone has a great rest of the week.