
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
- Email Address: paul.fearis@duke.edu
- Websites:
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
- Developing Biomaterial Implants to Improve Human Health (Jun 1, 2021 | Pratt Sc…
- Duke Design Health Program Impresses on the National Stage (Apr 26, 2021 | Prat…
- Innovation Amidst a Pandemic: A glimpse into Duke’s COVID-19 Engineering Respon…
- Designing Better Healthcare at Duke (Aug 11, 2020)
- COVID-19 Engineering Response Team Assembles from Every Corner of Duke (Apr 30,…
- 3-D Printing to Give Medical Teams the Highest Level of Protection (Apr 10, 202…
- Solving Pressing Challenges: 3D Printing of Medical Grade Face Shields (Apr 2, …
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.