Vicarious Surgical
Vicarious Surgical is creating a surgical robot that uses VR and 3D screens to allow the surgeon to accurately manipulate the robot while inside the patient’s abdomen.
LEAD DESIGNER FOR ALL DIGITAL SYSTEMS, HIRING MANAGER FOR DESIGN INTERN
FIGMA, BLENDER, AND UNITY
2020-2021
NDA
The work described is intentionally vague
Alas, the unfortunate realities of working in industry--NDAs can be a bit of a bother. I’ve tried to describe the work I did while at Vicarious Surgical without telling any company secrets but obviously cannot go into details. Everything on this page is easy to guess about the device or is publicly available so please don’t sue me 🙏🏽🤫
UNITY PROTOTYPING
The best way to evaluate an interaction for a medical device is to test it with actual users
I created the initial user flows for various ways for the surgeon to control the surgical robot while it is inside a patient. From these, I generated the first pass of interactive prototypes using Unity as a proof of concept. This prototype was improved by an engineer who I worked closely with and ended up forming a key part of a formative human factors study to validate the robot.
My work on this helped me gain a preliminary patent!
Khalifa, S. Sachs, A. Cattafe, M. Aronson, T. Deocadiz-Smith, Z. 2022. Systems and Methods for Controlling a Surgical Robotic Assembly in an Internal Body Cavity (U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/193,296). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
User Journey
The user journey starts well before the surgeon enters the OR
Because surgical procedures require so many people to perform--not just the surgeon, but their entire staff as well--surgeons are often not the ones setting up the surgical robot. I had to understand all the different hand offs and figure out what touchpoints there would be at every stage of the procedure.
Designing the UI
Surgeons prefer simplicity but often require complexity... and multiple blaring alarms
I like reducing complexity! But there were often many things that a surgeon needed to know at a glance--what movement mode were they in? What instruments are attached to each of the surgical arms? Where are the instruments in relation to the patient’s insides? Not knowing these things makes it terribly possible to accidentally kill the patient they’re trying to help.
In the case of encountering really big problems, surgery is important enough to need some really big, loud, and bright alarms--alarms that are mandated by the FDA for your product to hit the market. And all of this needs to be documented in detail.
Leadership and Management
Leading a team for the first time
Hiring and managing an intern was a first for me. In my capacity as the hiring manager, I evaluated hundreds of applications, interviewed multiple candidates, designed a 1hr limited design challenge, and hired a design intern.
Fiona Stolorz is an awesome designer and I’m glad to say she was hired on in a design capacity after her internship!
CONTACT ME
For all enquiries, email me at zachdeocadiz@gmail.com
