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Developing Strategies for Effective Team Communication in Medical Device Development

Undergraduate #409
Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Computer Science & Information Systems

Jessica Marie Gonzalez Vargas - University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Co-Author(s): Lourdes A. Medina, Julienne M. Deynes, and Ilka B. Rodriguez, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, Mayaguez



While medical devices transform the lives of many every day, the Medical Device Development (MDD) process is one tedious and lengthy. Before successful release of medical devices in the market developers must assure regulatory agencies (e.g. FDA in the US) about the safety and effectiveness of their products. This requires a massive amount of data management and documentation from ideation to marketing. To support this process, preliminary research efforts have included the development of a web-based collaborative platform to develop medical devices. This decision support system allows developers to work in teams to complete first a business proposal, go through the design process, develop a production plan and finalizing market introduction and post-launch procedures. To assure that this tool would satisfy developers’ needs and expectations, current research efforts are dedicated to testing and improving such tool. With researchers demonstrating that effective communication among development team members can impact successful MDD, research efforts are currently focused in the study of team communication and collaboration. A clear, precise, and concrete communication between the team members is useful in the development of the device to consider all the possibilities of the design, seen from the different perspectives of the members, and evaluate all the areas of opportunity that could be reach. To understand team communication in a web-based collaborative platform in particular, a simulation of the tool was made with Google sheets. Data was gathered from January to July 2016 with five teams in the course ININ 5105 (Introduction to Medical Device Design Methods) developing their projects in the simulated tool. While the current data will help understanding the interactions between team members when developing a medical device, collecting and analyzing this data will be cumbersome. Therefore, a substantial part of this proposal involves (1) documenting how each team member edited each one of the 20 different analyses, and (2) analyzing team interactions through editing and development of new content. Meanwhile, to visualize their individual or team weekly progress, teams filled a timesheet that can be used to analyze and compare their work. Also, data will be collected in a design challenge experience to understand how teams communicate, interact, and collaborate to reach a same goal. After all the data has been collected and analyzed, the research will entail developing and testing strategies that would enhance effective team communication in a web-based collaborative platform.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): Puerto Rico Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (PR-LSAMP).

Faculty Advisor: Lourdes A. Medina Aviles, lourdes.medina@upr.edu

Role: Since June 2016, I have been working in a Web-based Collaborative Platform to develop medical devices. My research efforts have been dedicated to improve and measure the effectiveness of the platform through data analysis. Data was gathered in an experimental testbed, where I have already analyzed the Self Efficacy Survey, Orders and Interactions, and GoogleDocs Platform Simulation. The data will be used to develop strategies for effective team communication in the platform. Research efforts are been dedicated to literature review for the platform’s continuous development and improvement.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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