Abstract:

The success in medical device development depends on alignment between needs of patients, providers, and hospitals.  In this talk I will cover 20 years of my journey in defining clinical needs, business objectives, and developing products in the space medical devices and robotics. I will discuss products across image guidance, navigation, ultrasound, and robotics technologies, starting with products in electrophysiology mapping and lung interventions, covering breakthroughs in quantitative imaging for ultrasound and AI-based ultrasound exams. We will talk about projects that worked and those that failed addressing key issues in the development cycle. In the final section, I will cover surgical and interventional robotic developments and Johnson & Johnson.

Bio:

As VP of Robotic Strategy at Johnson and Johnson MedTech, Aleksandra is leading Johnson & Johnson efforts in defining the future of surgical robotics. Johnson & Johnson MedTech is present in almost every operating room in the world with more than 75 million procedures each year. Aleksandra has over 20 years of experience in medical device and robotics. Starting her career in Germany, at RWTH Aachen University, Helmholtz Institute and University Hospital, Aleksandra obtained PhD (Dr. Ing.) with specialization in surgical robotics. After graduate school, Aleksandra spend 15 years at Philips in New York and Boston, starting as a scientist developing products across different clinical areas (e.g., electrophysiology, vascular interventional, lung interventions, cardiology) with technical focus on image guidance, navigation, and robotics. In the later years, she became innovation lead for Ultrasound and subsequently Image Guided Therapy at Philips. Today, she heads strategy for leading surgical robotics company Johnson & Johnson. Aleksandra grew up in former Yugoslavia (Montenegro and Serbia). She obtained her master’s degree (Dipl.-Ing.) in Electrical Engineering from Belgrade University in Serbia and PhD in Engineering from RWTH Aachen University in Germany. Strong believer in formal education, Aleksandra also has executive degree from MIT Sloan School of Management and certificate in Industrial Design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

Eric Diller, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Robotics Institute, Institute of Biomedical Engineering (cross-appointed); University of Toronto

Eric Diller received the B.S. and M.S. degree in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University in 2010 and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2013. He is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and the Robotics Institute at the University of Toronto, where he is director of the Microrobotics Laboratory. His research interests include micro-scale robotics, and features fabrication and control relating to remote actuation of micro-scale devices using magnetic fields, micro-scale robotic manipulation, and smart materials. He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Micro-Bio Robotics, and received the IEEE Robotics & Automation Society 2020 Early Career Award. He has also received the 2018 Ontario Early Researcher Award, the University of Toronto Innovation Award, and the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineering’s 2018 I.W. Smith Award for research contributions in medical microrobotics. He envisions an accessible future of medicine free of invasive colonoscopies, open surgery and long recoveries.
Lab website: http://microrobotics.mie.utoronto.ca/