How would you describe your role to someone you've never met?
I would say my role is to find solutions to facilitate the job of healthcare professionals and to improve patients experience during their cancer care.
How did you get started in the medical device industry?
I grew up in a family of doctors, nurses and chemists. My dad is a doctor, my mom is a pharmacist and my sisters are nurses, so I have memories of always being involved in the medical area. But I was more inclined to the creative side.
I didn't know if I wanted to study architecture or graphic design or something like that, but I ended up going for product design. I always knew I wanted to focus on the medical device area.
I decided to do product design and then try to look at the path into the medical industry, and that's what I did.
I studied Product Design in Mexico and I came to Ireland in 2021 to do a master's at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) called the MSc in Medical Device Design. Completing this master's program is what opened the doors to the medical industry for me.
What do you enjoy most about your role in Luminate?
What I enjoy the most is being able to have this firsthand interaction with nurses and patients, as they are the main users of our devices.
I enjoy seeing that my job has an impact on their daily life or on their work, I think that's what I enjoy most.
I actually have a quote here about a book I was reading (Yock, P.G. et al. (2015) Biodesign: The Process of Innovating Medical Technologies. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) a couple of years ago that says:
"There is no greater satisfaction than seeing a patient being helped by a technology that you’ve had a hand in creating".
That's really true.
What do you find most exciting about the work you do in Luminate?
I think the most exciting part are the challenges we have to overcome.
There's always some puzzle to solve, and that makes it exciting!
How has your role challenged your initial expectations?
I would say that my original expectation was to do design as I've done it before, which is having a brief to follow. Usually in the places I worked before we had a problem, and we solve it.
At Luminate I've had the opportunity to participate in defining what the user needs are and what the product requirements are going to be.
So now it's the one step before how I was used to working. It's a great opportunity, but it has been challenging to do everything from scratch and actually define what we need to solve.
What is the most valuable thing you've learned while working at Luminate?
I would say I've learned to trust more in my ideas, because before I started here, I was afraid of speaking and saying things like, "Oh, I think this would solve this problem" but I've now learned to stand up for my ideas.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to follow a similar career path as you?
I would say just to stay curious and to stay learning and reading and watching videos and listening to podcasts, in whatever you're interested in.
You never know how your interests outside of work could impact what you do every day. My suggestion would be to keep looking and learning.
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