Episode Summary

This episode’s guest is Kate MacNamee. She is Ximedica’s director of design research.Danielle and Kate dive deep into collecting data and advanced statistics within medical technologies and devices. Although this may sound big and complicated, Kate explains it wonderfully and compellingly. Kate also questions which department should manage and collect data. She reflects on the relevance of data in entrepreneurship and in building business. They close down the conversation turning to data and digital health. Data will always affect the design; that’s why saving it and properly managing it are essential for developing new medical devices and digital health. 

Today's Guest - Kate MacNamee

Kate is experienced in design research, business strategy, system thinking, and relationship management.She is a compelling communicator that works with clients to provide insights they can act on. It’s her job to lead development teams to a position of success. Whether she’s developing an autoinjector, a surgical robot, or a portfolio pipeline, Kate advocates for designs shaped by science and empathy. She knows how to solve complex problems, provide people with focus and direction, and communicate easily with multidisciplinary teams.Effective strategy requires equal parts detail awareness and system-level thought. Kate works within this balance to grant a prosperous future for products, businesses, and healthcare. She also offers deep expertise in product research and design methods following various regulatory bodies and standards for organizations, including FDA, DoD, and ISO/IEC.Source

Key Take-Aways

All businesses are created by people and for people. 

“Data, for data's sake, is always a mistake.” - Kate MacNamee

P-hacking is collecting massive amounts of data. 

Always answer the “why” question first. 

Data is an R&D endeavor. 

Inequitable data is when the data collected comes from a single group of people. 

Equitable data opened up the fields of study and broadened our understanding.

Always take Human-centered design into account in an accelerator program.

Data is not a value proposition.

Resources

NEMIC | Ximedica | Kate's Email | Kate's LinkedIn | Sign up to help a community affected by the opioid crisis | “Start with Why,” book