Mary Beth Privitera, Director, Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program, University of Cincinnati

Mary Beth Privitera has worked in the medical device industry since 1988 and is widely known as an expert in the application of human factors in medical product design. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati and works collaboratively between the Colleges of Medicine, Engineering, and Design.

Currently, she is the Director of the Medical Device Innovation and Entrepreneurship Program at the University of Cincinnati. This program collaborates with the medical device industry in order to conduct early stage contextual inquiry, device optimization, and usability testing, with a focus on translating research efforts into viable product development opportunities.

She is also the Director of the Center for Collaborative Medical Device Design (CCMDD) at the University of Cincinnati Research Institute. CCMDD is dedicated to collaborating with the medical device industry in the areas of design research and generative design.

In addition, Mary Beth serves as Co-Chair of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation’s Human Engineering Committee.

She has been associated with over 30 product releases and holds several patents. She has worked in the areas of endovascular neurosurgery, cardiology, general and vascular surgery, wound healing, temperature management and central access devices. Her current research focus is applied ergonomics, design research, and organic shape developed in Nitinol. She has been published in the area of medical device development and most recently authored a book titled “Contextual Inquiry for Medical Device Design.”