Professional MS-MPE Alumni Feature: Lauren Grice
I recently had the opportunity to speak with ‘21 MS-MPE alumna Lauren Grice to learn more about her time at the University of Pittsburgh and how it helped prepare her for her career as VP of Engineering with Respair, Inc.
From a young age, Lauren was very motivated to work in the healthcare environment. “I had a few experiences of shadowing clinicians and was able to see up close the impact that certain conditions and diseases had on patients. I wanted to have an impact on helping these individuals as I feel our health is the most precious thing we have.” Considering her strong interest in healthcare innovation, she decided to pursue her undergraduate degree in Bioengineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
Upon graduating in Spring 2020 during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lauren began to consider what post-graduation options she could pursue. During this time, she came across the MS-MPE program at Pitt. She found that this program truly aligned with her interest in medical device innovation. While her undergraduate experience provided a great technical engineering foundation, she was looking for a program that would help prepare her professionally for a career in the medical device industry. Lauren began the MS-MPE program in Fall 2020.
One of Lauren’s favorite aspects of the program was how comprehensive it is in teaching students different aspects of medical product development. “I really appreciate the philosophy of the MS-MPE program. It teaches students everything there is to know about the commercialization process of medical products.” Furthermore, she appreciated learning the practice of finding the “hair on fire” problem through human centered design practices. In her work since graduating, she feels that using this technique in the ideation stage sets up a good foundation for the remaining aspects of product development and commercialization.
Lauren noted that the project completed in the first required course of the MS-MPE program, “Medical Product Ideation”, was most influential on her career. At the beginning of this course, her team’s clinical mentor proposed an intricate robotic surgery idea. Considering that the idea was very technical, the team wanted to take time to ensure it was addressing the true clinical need. Through ethnography and customer discovery, they learned that situational awareness is limited during endoscopic surgery and is a key skill burgeoning residents must learn when first practicing surgery. To address the need of improved situational awareness, the team proposed an augmented reality interface that would allow surgeons to mark critical landmarks on the endoscope monitor. Lauren said, “It was interesting to have a conversation about a very complicated solution, take a step back, and then ideate a new potential solution that would address the core need.” The team took their project to the Randall Family Big Idea competition and placed second in the event. Lauren noted that this experience motivated her to pursue a career in entrepreneurship.
Prior to starting the MS-MPE program, Lauren was not aware of all the career possibilities an engineer could pursue, especially entrepreneurship. During the summer of 2021, Lauren began working with Respair, Inc., a start-up company that has since spun out of the University of Pittsburgh. Upon working with Respair over the summer, Lauren had a strong desire to continue working within the Pittsburgh start-up ecosystem. She obtained an internship with the LifeX Accelerator Program in Fall 2021. “I had an eagerness to learn and figure things out. I liked the dynamic of these environments and found it interesting. I really enjoyed the fast pace and largely unstructured environment.”
Upon graduating in December 2021, Lauren began exploring options to make a career in entrepreneurship a reality. In the beginning of 2022, she returned to Respair working in a part-time capacity along with another medical start-up company (Endolumik) and LifeX as the Accelerator Program Coordinator. She noted, “These experiences allowed me to figure out what I like best and what resonated with me the most. I wanted to learn as much as possible to understand what a next step within this space looked like for me.”
In September 2023, Lauren was offered a full-time position with the Respair team as VP of Engineering. In this position, she leads product development and regulatory affairs for the company. She stays involved with LifeX through their talent initiatives due to her passion for connecting young professionals with start-ups.
Earlier this year, Lauren was recognized by the Pittsburgh Business Times as an impactful young professional in its “30 Under 30” honors program. She hopes that this recognition shows students and other young professionals that entrepreneurship in the HealthTech space is a viable career path.
Lauren advised current and prospective students to, “Approach the MS-MPE program with an open mind and try to think more broadly about what is supposed to be taken away from the experience. Being able to decide on key takeaways and how that can be translated into your career is an important skill that this program gives you the opportunity to practice.”
Check out Lauren’s LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenegrice/