As 2023 draws to a close, we want to take a moment to highlight some of the stories our team shared this year. Their subjects are as varied, showcasing the diversity of talent and roles it takes to bring innovative and life-enhancing medical technology to the world. But in these stories, you’ll also see common threads: people taking on incredible challenges and collaborating to find solutions, fostering an essential sense of belonging, and discovering how much they’re capable of when they’re working toward a mission that changes lives. Read on for stories that showcase how Intuitive is proving what’s possible every day.
Finding confidence and breaking barriers
Advanced Clinical Research Manager Hiba Lejmi M.D. spends her days at Intuitive driving cross-functional teams toward the next innovative solution that could help doctors change lives. But as she explains, her work would not be possible without the strength she draws from her unique background, and the hard-won confidence she’s gained from her Intuitive experience.
“I am a woman in science. English is my third language. I am a person of faith who chooses to wear a headscarf. But boldness is not the same as confidence. Confidence comes from true belief in myself—without seeking the validation of others—and Intuitive is the place where I’ve found it.”
Read Hiba’s story here.
How digital innovations are transforming minimally invasive care
The digital team at Intuitive helps our company and our products evolve, leading to a data-driven and unified ecosystem that helps enable surgeons to gain context and insight into opportunities for improvement.
Hear from Chief Digital Officer Brian Miller on the innovative solutions his team works on every day, and why he ensures they never lose sight of the big picture: “If a software engineer has observed a da Vinci procedure in the operating room they will leverage that experience to make decisions as they are designing the next set of products. You cannot build technology that’s useful without the baseline mission of who we’re helping and what we’re trying to do.”
Bringing Intuitive home
“When I walked into the OR, that’s when I truly understood. I thought, ‘I want to be here.’” Clinical Sales Associate Brianna Alvarado launched her med-tech sales career with Intuitive because she wanted her work to affect people’s lives. Four years later, after extensive training and learning from “teammates that are like your partners,” Brianna is thriving in the field, managing relationships with four hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley, where she grew up.
As a member of ¡HOLA!, the employee resource group (ERG) for Intuitive’s Hispanic and Latinx community, she’s helping to recruit people from all backgrounds to come work for Intuitive; and as a CSA looking to expand the reach of Intuitive’s impact in communities like hers. In other words, she’s just getting started.
Check out Brianna’s story here.
A look inside Intuitive’s Human Factors team
Senior Director, Human Factors and User Research Kathryn Rieger leads the team that ensures every product Intuitive builds can be used in the safest and most effective ways possible. This of course requires rigorous research and curiosity. As Kathryn puts it, “A holistic approach to human factors allows us to ask big, hard questions. For example, we’re asking ourselves if good usability means reducing surgical times or increasing autonomy, or how much control a surgeon may want versus what’s automated.”
In this story, you’ll hear from Kathryn on how the Human Factors team is proving what’s possible in every stage of the product development cycle, pushing the boundaries of user research to enable surgeons to help patients around the world. “The providers using our surgical systems trust us to deeply understand their every move, so they can focus on what matters most—the patient.”
Read Kathryn’s story here.
Designing to make a difference
Behind every innovation at Intuitive are driven, curious team members who love making surgeons’ lives easier. What exactly does that work look like? For Human Factors Engineer Mike Curran, it means “understanding what surgeons and their patients go through,” and considering “everything a surgical team touches, sees, and hears.” And what sets Intuitive apart, Industrial Designer Joe Han describes, is how incredibly thorough the design process is: “We invest so many resources—people, time, and otherwise—in research and testing.”
Hear from Joe and Mike on the present and future of UX at Intuitive.
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Do you see yourself as part of the Intuitive story? Check out open roles and help us write the next chapter in minimally invasive care.