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Paul J Fearis

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

Overview


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.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Associate Professor of the Practice in the Department of Biomedical Engineering · 2021 - Present Biomedical Engineering, Pratt School of Engineering

In the News


Published June 1, 2021
Developing Biomaterial Implants to Improve Human Health
Published April 26, 2021
Duke Design Health Program Impresses on the National Stage
Published April 1, 2021
Innovation Amidst a Pandemic: A glimpse into Duke’s COVID-19 Engineering Response Team

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Recent Publications


A Portable Negative Pressure Isolation System as a Solution to Minimize Exposure of Health Care Providers to Infectious Pathogens.

Journal Article Am Surg · August 2022 The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the exposure of many surgeons and healthcare providers (HCPs) to disease given high patient loads and limited availability of negative pressure rooms. For these reasons we pursued the development of a portable patient ... Full text Link to item Cite

Helmet Modification to PPE With 3D Printing During the COVID-19 Pandemic at Duke University Medical Center: A Novel Technique.

Journal Article J Arthroplasty · July 2020 Care for patients during COVID-19 poses challenges that require the protection of staff with recommendations that health care workers wear at minimum, an N95 mask or equivalent while performing an aerosol-generating procedure with a face shield. The United ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Focused Ethnographic Examination of Barriers to Use of Long-Acting Injectable Antipsychotics.

Journal Article Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · April 2020 ObjectiveThe authors designed this project to identify barriers to using long-acting formulations of antipsychotics.MethodsThe authors used a focused ethnographic approach. Patients, psychiatrists, nurses, therapists and administrators we ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Kern Foundation (KEEN) Annual Supplement 2023

ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by Kern Family Foundation · 2020 - 2025

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Education, Training & Certifications


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