Paul J Fearis

Research Interests

Innovation & product development processes, design for manufacture

Bio

Paul Fearis joined Duke after 28 years in the medical device design consulting industry with PDD, Sagentia and latterly his own consultancy Clinvue.

Originally trained in Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art and in Mechanical Design at Cranfield Institute of Technology in the United Kingdom, Paul helped to define and bring to market a broad range of medical devices for both multinational corporations and startups in the United States and around the world.

Paul specializes in human-centric product design with particular emphasis on front-end innovation and product specification processes, including ethnographic observational research and the identification of unmet, underserved and unarticulated clinical/stakeholder needs.

Education

• M.A. Royal College of Art (United Kingdom), 1990

Positions

• Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

Courses Taught

• STRATEGY 898: Special Topics
• MENG 553: Master of Engineering Assessment
• MENG 552: Master of Engineering Supplemental Internship
• MENG 551: Master of Engineering Internship/Project Assessment
• MENG 550: Master of Engineering Internship/Project
• MENG 549: Career Preparation
• I&E 722: Design in Healthcare Deploy
• I&E 721: Design in Healthcare 2
• I&E 720: Design in Healthcare 1
• I&E 590: Special Topics in Innovation & Entrepreneurship
• HLTHMGMT 898: Special Topics
• BME 790L: Advanced Topics with the Lab for Graduate Students in Biomedical Engineering
• BME 789: Internship in Biomedical Engineering
• BME 775L: Design Health 3: Deliver
• BME 774L: Design Health 2: Design
• BME 773L: Design Health 1: Discover
• BME 673L: Advanced Design and Manufacturing (GE, AE)
• BME 590L: Special Topics with Lab
• BME 590-1: Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering

Publications

• Economopoulos KP, Fearis P, Simmons WN, Richardson ES, Montgomery SP. A Portable Negative Pressure Isolation System as a Solution to Minimize Exposure of Health Care Providers to Infectious Pathogens. Am Surg. 2022 Aug;88(8):1901–3.
• Erickson MM, Richardson ES, Hernandez NM, Bobbert DW, Gall K, Fearis P. Helmet Modification to PPE With 3D Printing During the COVID-19 Pandemic at Duke University Medical Center: A Novel Technique. The Journal of arthroplasty. 2020 Jul;35(7S):S23–7.
• Robinson DG, Subramaniam A, Fearis PJ, Shi R, Walsh M, Hanna LA, et al. Focused Ethnographic Examination of Barriers to Use of Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics. Psychiatric services (Washington, DC). 2020 Apr;71(4):337–42.
• Fearis PJ, Craft B. Sustaining the success of medical device innovation. Surgery. 2016 Nov;160(5):1130–4.

In The News

• Developing Biomaterial Implants to Improve Human Health (Jun 1, 2021 | Duke Engineering News)
• Duke Design Health Program Impresses on the National Stage (Apr 26, 2021 | Duke Engineering News)
• Innovation Amidst a Pandemic: A glimpse into Duke’s COVID-19 Engineering Response Team (Apr 1, 2021 | DukEngineer Magazine)
• Designing Better Healthcare at Duke (Aug 11, 2020 | )
• Redesigning Health Care: A Q&A About Duke Design Health (May 18, 2020 | Duke MEDx News)
• COVID-19 Engineering Response Team Assembles from Every Corner of Duke (Apr 30, 2020 | Duke Engineering News)
• 3-D Printing to Give Medical Teams the Highest Level of Protection (Apr 10, 2020 | Duke Today)
• Solving Pressing Challenges: 3D Printing of Medical Grade Face Shields (Apr 2, 2020 | Duke Today)
• An Enterprising Program for Design Education Students (Jul 11, 2019 | DukEngineer Magazine)
• Design Health Program Launches at Duke Engineering (Jul 8, 2019 | Duke Engineering News)
• Paul Fearis: Informing Innovation at Duke BME (Feb 5, 2019 | Duke Engineering News)