Start With Problems or Solutions? Medical Device Design in Industry and Academia

Design processes can be influenced by their practice environments. Although design processes of industry engineers have been examined in multiple research studies, few studies have investigated design processes of academic engineers. As academia and industry have different sociocultural norms and constraints, their design processes likely also differ. To examine this question, we conducted semi-structured interviews with both academic and industry engineers who had successfully designed medical devices. Our qualitative findings revealed that engineers in industry described their design process as a sequence with problem definition, solution exploration, detail design, evaluation, and communication. Academic engineers, in contrast, described their design process as beginning with a discovered solution, then searching for application problems, evaluating compatibility between problems and solution, and finally, communicating their findings through publications. Understanding differences in design processes of academic and industry engineers can facilitate knowledge sharing and promote collaboration between academia and industry. The findings also highlight the impact of sociocultural norms on practices, even in disciplines with highly trained and clearly defined processes.