My mission is bold but simple: I want to change the culture of healthcare innovation from technology-push to market-pull. The change starts with educating physicians and clinicians to take an empathy-first leadership role in solving the wealth of problems in our healthcare system.Here's my story:My first career was an Olympic-hopeful athlete in the sport of flatwater kayaking. I retired in 2006 after having competed in multiple World Championships and was a National Champion in the 2002 K-2 500M event with Dr. Robert Lott.My undergraduate degree is in Industrial Design from Georgia Tech. Not Engineering. Industrial Designers live at the intersection of psychology and engineering to create beautiful product experiences like furniture, shoes, cars, iPhones, and Airbnb. How we do this has been the subject of much debate and hype, known as Design Thinking. I did well enough at kayaking to qualify for Home Depot’s Olympic Jobs Opportunities Program in 2003. The incredible mentors I found there recognized the potential for design to lead innovation. We built an innovation department from scratch called OrangeWorks and launched multiple new products during my 4 years at Home Depot.In 2007, my wife and I moved to North Carolina. I started Trig and the evening MBA program at NC State. The Product Innovation Lab course was my first exposure to medical device design, working with Dr Lynn Fox at UNC Health. Our project won first place at $8,000 from the PDMA Student Awards in 2011. In 2015, the Trig team was invited by Dr Andrew DiMeo to be part of the annual Coulter College event hosted by the Biomedical Engineering Society. It surprised everyone, including ourselves, how much value designers could contribute to early-stage medical device design. Trig continues to play a central role in Coulter College as we look ahead to 2024.In 2020, Andy Kant, Director FastTraCS at UNC Health invited Trig to design a training program to engage physicians in innovation. The 5-week design thinking workshop was a surprising success, leading to multiple new devices and significant grant funding for our participants. We continue to build on that success today with the medDesign program.I am a frequent public speaker, co-host with Jared Gabaldon on the medDesign podcast, and mentor to young professionals. In my spare time, I am an avid reader and keep up with a busy family life with our three kids.Please follow medDesign by Trig on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Podcasts to keep up with the amazing stories of how good design is good for healthcare.