Paul J Fearis

Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of Biomedical Engineering

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.

Appointments and Affiliations

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

Contact Information

Education

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

Research Interests

Innovation & product development processes, design for manufacture

Courses Taught

  • 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 721L: Design in Healthcare 2
  • I&E 720: Design in Healthcare 1
  • I&E 590: Special Topics in Innovation & Entrepreneurship
  • HLTHMGMT 898: Special Topics
  • BME 791: Graduate Independent Study
  • BME 791-1: Graduate Independent Study
  • 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 590-1: Special Topics in Biomedical Engineering

In the News

Representative Publications

  • Economopoulos, Konstantinos P., Paul Fearis, W Neal Simmons, Eric S. Richardson, and Sean P. Montgomery. “A Portable Negative Pressure Isolation System as a Solution to Minimize Exposure of Health Care Providers to Infectious Pathogens.” Am Surg 88, no. 8 (August 2022): 1901–3. https://doi.org/10.1177/00031348221086783.
  • Erickson, Melissa M., Eric S. Richardson, Nicholas M. Hernandez, Dana W. Bobbert, Ken Gall, and Paul Fearis. “Helmet Modification to PPE With 3D Printing During the COVID-19 Pandemic at Duke University Medical Center: A Novel Technique.” J Arthroplasty 35, no. 7S (July 2020): S23–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arth.2020.04.035.
  • Robinson, Delbert G., Anant Subramaniam, Paul J. Fearis, Richard Shi, Megan Walsh, Lauren A. Hanna, and John M. Kane. “Focused Ethnographic Examination of Barriers to Use of Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics.” Psychiatric Services (Washington, D.C.) 71, no. 4 (April 2020): 337–42. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201900236.
  • Fearis, Paul J., and Brandon Craft. “Sustaining the success of medical device innovation.” Surgery 160, no. 5 (November 2016): 1130–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surg.2016.06.053.