Derek Harper shares his experiences in engineering innovation in the medical field, including insights on career development and effective leadership strategies.
Main Topics:
About the guest: Derek Harper is a seasoned professional in the biomedical engineering field with a rich history of innovation and leadership. Derek's career has spanned various roles and has been instrumental in developing and introducing groundbreaking medical devices and technologies. Engineers listening to this episode will gain invaluable insights from Derek's experiences, learning about the challenges and triumphs of engineering in the medical field, leadership, and the intersection of engineering innovation and market needs.
Links:
Derek Harper - LinkedIn
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us
Derek Harper shares his experiences in engineering innovation in the medical field, including insights on career development and effective leadership strategies.
Main Topics:
About the guest: Derek Harper is a seasoned professional in the biomedical engineering field with a rich history of innovation and leadership. Derek's career has spanned various roles and has been instrumental in developing and introducing groundbreaking medical devices and technologies. Engineers listening to this episode will gain invaluable insights from Derek's experiences, learning about the challenges and triumphs of engineering in the medical field, leadership, and the intersection of engineering innovation and market needs.
Links:
Derek Harper - LinkedIn
About Being An Engineer
The Being An Engineer podcast is a repository for industry knowledge and a tool through which engineers learn about and connect with relevant companies, technologies, people resources, and opportunities. We feature successful mechanical engineers and interview engineers who are passionate about their work and who made a great impact on the engineering community.
The Being An Engineer podcast is brought to you by Pipeline Design & Engineering. Pipeline partners with medical & other device engineering teams who need turnkey equipment such as cycle test machines, custom test fixtures, automation equipment, assembly jigs, inspection stations and more. You can find us on the web at www.teampipeline.us
This is your invitation to leap ahead in your engineering career. The inaugural product development Expo PDX. happening in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, May 14th, 2024 brings you face to face with the engineering elite. These aren't just any speakers. They're the industry's highest performing product development engineers ready to share the methods and strategies that have defined their success. Imagine learning design for manufacturability from those who've redefined it, diving deep into tolerance analysis with pioneers exploring novel engineering applications for Excel and unlocking unique 3d printing strategies all in one place. These high caliber engineers will open their playbooks offering practical hands on lessons forged over decades in the trenches of innovation. Don't miss out on this unparalleled opportunity to absorb the wisdom of those who've led the charge in engineering breakthroughs. PDX is your chance to not just meet but learn directly from these legends of engineering. Mark the date May 14th, 2024 In Phoenix. Elevate your skills, ignite your creativity and join a community of growth minded engineering professionals at PDX. Learn more at Teampipeline.us forward slash PDX. Hello, and welcome to another exciting episode of The being an Engineer Podcast. Today we are privileged to be speaking with Derek Harper. Derek is a seasoned professional in the biomedical engineering field with a rich history of innovation and leadership. Derek's career has spanned various roles and has been instrumental in developing and introducing groundbait breaking medical devices and technologies. Engineers listening to this episode will gain valuable insights from Derek's experiences, learning about the challenges and triumphs of engineering in the medical field leadership and the intersection of engineering innovation and market needs. Derek, thanks so much for joining us today.
Derek Harper:Thank you, Aaron. Pleasure to be here. Thank you for the invitation.
Aaron Moncur:So Derek, tell me what made you decide to become an engineer?
Derek Harper:Well, I'd say the first thing would be just the aptitude for science and math. And beyond that, it was my desire to understand how things worked, whether it be the human body, or a bicycle, or an automobile, just kind of like what most engineers might feel this just the desire to understand how things work, why things work, and just the drive to understand and the drive of knowledge.
Aaron Moncur:I remember listening to you say that it brings to mind when I was I don't know, maybe 9 or 10, I had this this like crummy old, old school FM radio, you know, the guy with a little dial on it. And I had, there's a little headphone jack, right. So I plugged my headphones in and I listened to it. It's just this crummy old thing, right? And in one day, I took the back off of it because I was curious to see what it looked like on the inside. And I took the back off. And I was just kind of messing around with the headphone jack. And I learned that if I put it in just the right place, touching a couple of these metal contacts inside, that they had no indication that they were associated with the actual headphone receptacle. But I learned that if I touch just the right metal parts inside with the headphone jack, I could hear the audio and I thought it was like the coolest thing ever that I had found another way to listen to the audio that was admittedly way more difficult than the jack that was, you know, built in designed into the radio, but just that that, that act of like discovery, right? It was so thrilling to me and I think that's that's kind of what you're saying right now.
Derek Harper:It's exactly what I'm saying. And that's a more advanced level of go acquiring knowledge of how something might work, but it's as simple as pulling the electric cord halfway out of the socket and dropping a coin, shorting out the two things and realizing, oh, that might not have been a good idea, but and following my father around whatever He was doing whatever project he was doing in the house, whether it be out in the yard, plumbing, electrical, going to the hardware store, I had that innate desire to learn how things were learned how to fix things. And interestingly, my brother, who was fairly close to me and age, never wanted to do that. So I think that the, it's clear early on, when someone wants to be an engineer versus, you know, a close relative, like my brother who really didn't have any interest in that. Yeah.
Aaron Moncur:When you have the neck. This this, you mentioned dropping a coin on a plug that had been pulled halfway out. Does that come from personal experience? Absolutely. That is great. Do you remember what appliance was plugged in and what shorted out?
Derek Harper:I think it might have been a clock radio.
Aaron Moncur:Discovery? Yeah,
Derek Harper:discovery, I learned probably shouldn't do that anymore.
Aaron Moncur:All right. Well, can, can you think of? Or was there even a pivotal moment in your career that kind of helped shape your trajectory in the engineering field?
Derek Harper:Okay, well, there are two, my one came to mind immediately. But then there's another one prior to that. It my desire to understand the human body, all of its inner workings, why it did what it did wire, what are thoughts? How is that stored in our brain? Everything? How does the muscle contract and what are bones, all of that, that was a big part of my upbringing. And I considered going to medical school. And there were two things that drove me away from wanting to go to medical school, one being a family friend, who said, it's not going to be the same in the future, you're going to end up working for a company, basically an insurance company, and it's going to be more managed care. So that advice is what drove me away from the career of medicine to biomedical engineering. So that was number one, that helped drive me in the engineering field, initially, and then I'd say the next thing that really shaped my career would be that I started with a small startup company, where I'm pretty much right out of college, and was forced to learn everything. From design, to manufacturing, to quality, to designing molds, we were a very vertically integrated company, which was not very common back in the day, and certainly isn't very common these days, because everybody's into outsourcing things. But I think, the small company that forced me to learn a very broad base of most tasks that go into designing, developing manufacturing and selling medical devices, I'd say that the choice of going with a small company, one that needed and encouraged their engineering team to learn as much about the whole process. And that was huge learning, as many things as I could early on, allowed me to speak multiple languages. And I think these languages are talking to the machine shop, talking to the designers talking to the marketing people talking to the salespeople. And even getting to the point. Quickly, within six, nine months of starting my job. I was out in the field as one of the two key technical experts that were allowed and asked to talk to the surgeons, it was a neurosurgery focused company. So I think that kind of is a more than just one key answer. But yeah, the small nature of the startup allowed me to learn quickly and broaden my scope. Whereas if I had should have chosen to go with a much larger company, I would have had At a narrower Responsibility framework,
Aaron Moncur:I think that's a really huge insight, being able to work for a small company where you have to wear a lot of hats and the increased knowledge and experience that brings for engineers who might be listening to this, who maybe are working at a bigger company and their role is a little bit narrower. Is there anything that you can suggest that might help them approach the more varied experience that you would gain at a smaller company? Or? Or is the suggestion just consider going to work for a smaller company,
Derek Harper:I think it might be just going to work for a smaller company. I've had the pleasure of working to small startups that were later acquired by large global manufacturer, medical device companies. And those companies, whether be in the year 1996, when the first company acquired us, and all the way up to 2016. The second time that that event happened in my career, they both are so large that they don't really want someone to have such broad responsibility. Everybody has a task, everybody has a responsibility. And I think it's, I think it's good, it's fine. But if we're trying to develop an engineers, career, they do need to be exposed to all aspects of the company, and especially the customer end, I think the customer end is key. Key to it's key to everything, it's key to understanding what the customer needs are, it's key to understanding the language they speak. It's key to being in a position of information gathering, knowledge development, and being able to set the course for what changes might need to be made to current products and what products might be developed next. I think that's very important. Yeah,
Aaron Moncur:totally. Can you think of a situation in your career where there was a failure or a setback of some sort, and how it contributed to your growth as an engineer? Yes,
Derek Harper:a number of them. And let's just start with one that I think, is a basic tenant of developing a product. The second company that I mentioned was that was acquired by a large medical device company. We had three sounding surgeons, three very talented, very smart surgeons driving the direction of the product development. And my partner engineer and I listened carefully. We did multiple labs with them, we went through multiple iterations, and developed a great product, showed it to a few other people during that process, and quickly gained FDA 510 K clearance for the product. And then we went to a trade show and launched. Everything's going great. First 2030 implants happened, maybe first 50 implants. And we started getting feedback, that the device size was not optimal for a new technique that was being promoted in the field. And at first, we didn't really understand how that could be in we asked her three servings and they just minimized Oh, no, no, that's not right. This is the way to go. That surgeon, the other surgeon, the two surgeons, you're hearing that from, they're really a small, little niche. Well, that wasn't true. It was a rapidly growing niche of surgeons who were adopting this new approach to implanting the device into the space where it was going in the body. And we quickly had to come up with a smaller device that worked just as well as the previous one. And luckily Kevin turned something around real quick. And we got something approved, again, not approved but cleared for market. And we were able to survive that false start pretty well. But what it taught reminded us is that the sample size of customers that must be interviewed, asked about the market potential the product, review the product, use it in a lab, it must be pretty large have to go from the thought leading surgeons who traveled around the world, trading their peers, to the high volume surgeon who is a community doctor, which one of our founders was, and all the way down to the new MD, surgeon, physician, or customer, if it's not a medical device, who's just getting going, because markets are always changing techniques are always changing. And that's whether you're designing something for a snowboarder, or an automobile or a medical device in our case. So I think that was a huge lesson that we were able to circumnavigate the problem quickly. But it could have been disastrous, because we were a startup company with limited funding at that time, and we needed great results to give confidence to our investors, that we knew what we were doing. And that was an expensive, you know, timewise, it was an expensive deal. But we circumnavigated it, okay, and came out fine, but it was a good less.
Aaron Moncur:So when these surgeons were leading your team, and like you mentioned, surgeons, as a general rule are very intelligent, highly capable people in our societies, and it can be, I think, kind of challenging or daunting to challenge them on anything. How were you able to? Or maybe even in general, how do you suggest that engineers who are working with Doc's surgeons, how do you suggest they frame their communication in a way that doesn't come across as confrontational or, you know, at all threatening to the surgeon?
Derek Harper:That's a very important question and problem that is faced in this field, as you mentioned, and especially when they're the co founders of the company. It wasn't okay, just to say, I think you're wrong. We're gonna go do this. And we're not going to pay attention to your combined 30 plus years of experience in this industry. So what we ended up doing was we got a lot of feedback. And we're able to with evidence, go show them that, hey, this is a this is not a we have to do this and cancel the existing product. It's just we're going to do both. So we didn't, we didn't exactly tell them. We have to redesign it and obviate this first product and go with the other we just said, we're going to do both. And we kept both for about 12 to 18 months and then wound down in the original design so that it was not it wasn't a either or my way or your way.
Aaron Moncur:All right, let me take just a short break here and share with the listeners that our company pipeline design and engineering develops new and innovative manufacturing processes for complex products than implements them into manual fixtures or fully automated machines to dramatically reduce production costs and improve production yields for OEMs. Today, we're speaking with Derek Harper. So Derek, you've been a leader in the medical device space for for quite a while. What are some of the strategies that you found most effective for leading and motivating engineering teams?
Derek Harper:I would say that hiring the right people for the job right away is key. And then once you get the right people who have the desire and the drive to take to do what it takes to develop a product from the napkin all the way into commercial release. It truly is treating everybody with respect and having a unified team. I I tried to make everybody feel involved in every part of the process, communication about what we were doing, what our vision was, what the plan was, was important. So I think, sharing the vision of what the goal was, where we were going and why we're we're doing and teaching everybody from the warehouse people, to the engineers, to the quality people, why we were doing it, what the importance is of this device. And in previous company, when they were production, people making the product working at the same company, I would teach the assemblers, the importance of the device, what it did, why it was important, what would happen if it failed? What would happen if it was dirty? What If, therefore, non sterile. So I think trying to be a leader who is willing to educate and involved in the process is something that works really well. There are those who lead by intimidation and fear and expect everybody to just joke and respond when directives are given. I've never found that to work for me. And the teams that I've developed, responded well, when they were involved in the process, and they're more willing to get on board, when there's a something that has to be done quickly, like a product redesign, which I mentioned earlier. It's like, oh, okay, yep, new knowledge, we got to go out and figure this out. So, I mean, some weekends, that means some extra time, that means a lot of stress and pressure for a little bit. But I think that is the strategy that I used the most. And that worked the best. Yeah,
Aaron Moncur:I agree 100%, on making people feel involved, sharing all of the relevant information, as opposed to this fear based leadership, if you can call it that leadership, I had a I've just, that's, that's always made sense to me. And it has always surprised me shocked me really, when I hear about situations in which there's a manager or a boss, who who leads based on fear, you know, he gets angry, he yells. In fact, I had a boss like that, for a short time, long time ago. This is right after I got laid off and started my own company, I was doing some contract work for another company. And the owner of this company is a small, small company automation place. And this, this owner would almost on a weekly basis, you could count on him just flying off the handle. And in he would yell and scream and demand things. And it was just it was shocking to me that first of all, any adult would behave like that. But second of all, an adult who's trying to lead a team would behave like that. And and I think you can probably guess how loyal his engineers were to him, right? Not not loyal at all. No one, no one liked the guy we didn't want to, we certainly didn't want to go the extra mile for the guy. Just just incredible that that people can can behave like that. But there are people out that out there like that, which is, again, just shocking to me.
Derek Harper:There are people like that, and some of them are very successful. I hear Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are supposedly that type of leader
Aaron Moncur:been interesting.
Derek Harper:I don't think that works for me. I can learn as much from the entire team. And I try to learn something every day. And just because I'm in a leadership position doesn't mean I need to be less than human and dictatorial in my approach. And of course, there are times when maybe I'm having a bad day or circumstance might dictate more discipline in an approach. But in general, the best way I found to do that and to motivate people is to teach them why we're doing something. It's one thing to tell them what we're going to do and what the goals are. But why Why would we want to do this? Is it really necessary? And I think that that goes a long way. treating people with respect and asking them to come along for the ride and maybe give more than they're ready to give. And they might do it if they're treated. Well,
Aaron Moncur:absolutely, yeah, we have a governing principle here that is governed by invitation, not compulsion. And I don't, to my knowledge, no one at pipeline has ever been compelled to do anything. Of course, the end of the day can never really compel someone to do something. But you can yell and you can threaten and you can try to use fear. And there have been times that the team here has gone just way, way, way above and beyond, you know, what, what should be expected of them. And it's, they've done it of their own volition. And I think it's because we have this wonderful culture where there, there's no compulsion there, people are treated with respect. They're treated like adults, not children, and allowed to make decisions for themselves. And it's just kind of a magic place. Everyone gets along, they all support each other. And people do what needs to be done to get the job done. And it's it's a really wonderful place to work. Little tooth there for for pipeline.
Derek Harper:Yeah. Congratulations. That's great. I love hearing stories like that. And it's obviously working because you have quite a facility, quite a team. And from what I can see, and what you've shown me and you've done some amazing things. So your team is doing great. So you're doing a good job of it.
Aaron Moncur:Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, given your experience with with medical devices and that industry, what what emerging trends do you think will we'll be seeing in the next five to 10 years within
Derek Harper:getting in biomedical engineering field, especially with devices? I think the, the biologics aspect of marrying devices to interact with the human body, whether that be with biomimicry, which I've had the pleasure of doing having a product that we developed for rotator cuff repair, it's probably my favorite project of all time, to some of these brain chips that are going in to help people see or respond to text messages. If they have ALS, I saw something recently, just last week that not Elon Musk company, but the there's another one that is implanting chips, it's actually on a stent that goes in there into a vein in the brain. And it somehow is sensing the brain waves based on an input, you know, they're eliciting or response from the person's vision, or their touch, or their hearing. And they're able to kind of interpret what it is by this antenna that's basically implanted in their vein in their brain. And it's just crazy. So I think that the interface between the human body and these devices is going to be the future.
Aaron Moncur:You You mentioned this project, just now that you're very proud of maybe it's this one, or maybe it's a different one, but can you discuss a project that that you're particularly proud of? And that the impact that had either either on you or the patients or the company? Yes,
Derek Harper:it is the one that I mentioned, that I'm most proud of, and most rotator cuff repairs, and most tendon to bone repairs that happen when a tendon tears away from the bone, the easiest thing to do is to suture it back to the bone and let it heal. Unfortunately, it heals as a scar. And it's never quite the same as the original tended bone connection that Mother Nature gave us. So there's an advancing field and it's been going on for decades. And luckily for us, there was a lot of prior art in literature that allowed us to leverage everything that they're done with biomimetic scaffolds. This is basically it's kind of like a gore tex graft, but you It is micro fiber all the way down to nano fiber diameter fibers nano size and micro size fibers that are either aligned, or they can be cross linked, as you know, skin tissue is crosslinked. tendons and ligaments are aligned like stringy cheese. And the theory is, is that you can teach the fibroblasts and osteoblasts to lay down their tissue. Alongside this you can do it with collagen, you can do it with polymers, these little fibers, and you teach the body, how to lay it down, and it builds around it and then the scaffold resorbs. And theoretically, you have a more natural, stronger durable bone tendon interface, and we started researching it. And one would think that this would be a very difficult thing to get approved by the FDA. We found a creative way around that, so to speak, but it wasn't tricky. It was just a way to get it approved, we weren't able to make any major claims until we came out with a study that showed what it did, but at least we're able to get it on the market. And this is a little piece of poly lactic glycolic acid PLGA. That is electrospun. And it's less than half a millimeter thick. Maybe a square centimeter in diameter, maybe a little less than that, and not diameter, but in surface area, and was an 80% air. But the body was able to recognize structure like the extracellular matrix, there's collagen fibers in bone, there's collagen fibers and skin and muscles. And so we were mimicking what that tendon to bone interface might look like. And this is not yet proven. I don't think anybody's come out with a study that says this is the absolute way to go. And maybe it'll be a fifth generation beyond what we did. But I was excited about it because we were the first in this field of orthopedics to to do it and get it commercialized. Wow,
Aaron Moncur:that's phenomenal. What a feeling that must have been to complete the project and see it being deployed in patients. Yes.
Derek Harper:So one of the one of the more rewarding things and medical devices is to see the product actually be used in a patient and implanted. That one was rewarding. Some of the other ones we did you know, it's nerve racking. It's like, okay, we've seen that first implant, go in a patient. It's nerve racking. It's like, oh, my gosh, this is a real patient. Please work, please work, please don't break to work. But by the time we gotten to this particular product, it was it was more joyful than a little nerve wracking. Wow. All
Aaron Moncur:right, well, just a couple more questions. And we'll wrap things up here. What advice would you give to young engineers who are aspiring to contribute to the biomedical engineering field, the medical devices space,
Derek Harper:learn as much as you can about as many things as you can, and get as close to the customer as you can. There's a lot of a lot of knowledge at that customer company interface that can't be replaced. And I think that engineers are sometimes left out of that discussion. And those discussions are performed by marketing people. But I think it's crucial to have the, the eyes and the ears and the senses all senses of an engineer reading body language. I think it's very important. So I would learn as much as you could about everything that helps you do your current job. And then I try to get as close to the customers boss.
Aaron Moncur:Yeah, yeah, define the problem really well by talking with the end user. Well, I was saying that I Have this personal mission of accelerating the speed of engineering. And I wonder, has there been a situation in your career where you have found a way to do just that to accelerate the speed of engineering. And of course, this is not just, you know, trying to force your team to work more hours, that's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about a new tool, or a new technique, or a new mindset, even that really moves the needle in terms of how quickly devices or products can be engineered and developed? Well,
Derek Harper:I think for me, going back to the early 2000s timeframe, the biggest thing was rapid prototyping, stereo lithography. That was huge. I can't even imagine how things ever got done without rapid prototyping. And now you can rapid that type of mold to get, you know, in product. So it's really advancing, I mean, you can do stereo lithography with different materials, and they're implanting some of these materials, you can do it with metals. And I would say in the future AI, might be something that we can get better at using. And if we don't, we're going to be left behind. I think the, you know, knowledge is power Information is power. And there were things that I've done recently that I didn't know quite how to do. And instead of having to rely on another expert, I was able to ask the right questions of just general AI platforms. And they taught me basically added to it, an engineer can problem solve and problem solve themselves, out of and into, out of a bad situation into a good situation. So it's, usually we can learn pretty quickly. And I think, from just an information standpoint, AI is already there. But I think in the future, from the design aspect, it's going to be essential to keep up with all of the advancements, so that there might be a way to not might be there are ways to do design iterations in AI, that make it easier to do simulations. And I think that that's some that's an area where I'm not yet. I'm feeling a little behind in. And I think that people who were ahead of ahead of the curve on that one are going to be successful.
Aaron Moncur:I like that you mentioned AI, I think it's obviously a powerful tool. And super interesting, too. We have taken all of the transcripts one example of how we're using AI, we've taken all of the transcripts of the being an engineer podcast. So there are 200 Plus transcripts, episodes that we've had. And we've uploaded these as PDF documents into a chat GPT agent. And we it's called Be A E podcast analyst be a being an engineer. And it's it's out there available to the public right now. If you have a chat GPT Plus subscription, then you can access this agent. And what it allows you to do is query the agent, effectively queering the responses of over 200, high performing senior level engineers, and you can ask it questions, and it will give you answers based on what these engineers have actually said in the podcast. So there's a lot of information there. You can imagine how much how many answers have been generated by over 200 engineers being interviewed over the past four years. And that's one of the ways that we've been using AI here and it's out there for free right now. So all of you listening, you can go to Chad GPT and search in the agents for be a e podcast analyst. And check that out. If you don't especially if you don't have a direct access to to a mentor where you work, this can be a great another option for a mentor of course, it's probably not going to replace an actual you know live person mentor but it's a wonderful supplement and a great place to start. That's where really easy and you can use anytime, anywhere. So there's my there's my plug for this little tool that that we've put together, get we're not charging anything for it. It's just out there to hopefully enrich the engineering community. I love that. Well, Derek. Yeah. Thank you. I think it's a really I mean, open AI has just done tremendous things for everyone. That really cool stuff. I think we'll we'll wrap things up there. Derek, thank you so much again for for being on the show today. I can't wait to see what you and your your group of engineers work on next.
Derek Harper:Thank you, Aaron. This has been a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.
Aaron Moncur:Thank you, Derek. I'm Aaron Moncur, founder of pipeline design, and engineering. If you like what you heard today, please share the episode. To learn how your team can leverage our team's expertise developing turnkey equipment, custom fixtures and automated machines and with product design, visit us at Team pipeline.us. Thanks for listening