Stepping into the learning environment at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid was fast-paced and exciting, but when Clara Romero received an international exchange scholarship from the university, her career opened up and everything started falling into place. She spent her third year of college at the University of Maryland, a renowned institution for engineering. There, she was exposed to prosthetic design engineering and felt instantly connected to the biotechnology industry.
In her hands-on experience in Maryland, Clara was tasked with the digital design and fabrication of a 3D-printed swimming prosthesis for a 7-year-old amputee. To Clara, helping a young child regain mobility and cope with the loss of a limb was the most important undertaking of her life up to that point. She needed to showcase a deep understanding of human anatomy, source the right materials for the prosthesis, conduct market research, and develop a product that could withstand the demands of a highly active child.
She worked through a number of prototypes by scanning the limb and manufacturing the socket for the prosthesis. This advanced approach beat out traditional manufacturing techniques and resulted in a better fit and improved hydrodynamics. At the end of this project, Clara made a difference in a young child's life and proved to herself just how much of an impact she could have in her career.
In her final year of college back in Madrid, Clara began working with the neurosurgical department and innovation 3D printing lab of Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón, one of the top 3 hospitals in Spain. She dedicated her time to designing and manufacturing custom cranioplasty implants for patients with cranial defects. The hospital needed a faster, more cost-effective solution that was made in-house, and by relying on open-source programs and 3D printing, Clara helped bring those goals to fruition.
The work that Clara did with 3D printing for the swimming prosthesis and the cranioplasty implants demonstrates the potential of advanced manufacturing techniques, such as 3D printing, to revolutionize healthcare. By leveraging her expertise in digital design and fabrication, Clara was able to create custom solutions for patients with specific needs, which traditional manufacturing techniques may not have been able to accomplish. This type of personalized medicine has the potential to improve patient outcomes and make healthcare more efficient and cost-effective. Furthermore, Clara's work shows the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration between engineers, doctors, and other medical professionals to develop innovative solutions to complex medical problems.
Eager to forge ahead in the biotechnology industry, Clara headed to the University of California, San Diego where she began pursuing a master's degree in engineering. As part of the program, she worked as an engineering consultant for medical devices at Evolve Medtech. Further sharpening her product development, design, and manufacturing capabilities, Clara created a novel retractor system to be used in orthopedic surgeries for distal radial fractures.
After completing the master's program, Truvian Health onboarded Clara. She stepped into the role partly because she felt like it would help her learn new skills, but to Clara, being able to impact a large number of people was one of the largest draws. Focusing on a fully-automated blood analyzer device called TruAnalyzer, Clara and her team are creating a point-of-care blood testing tool that provides faster results, reduces testing timelines, and slashes the costs associated with blood tests.
Routine blood tests are a critical component in patient care; blood tests can quickly identify root causes of health issues, flag potential areas for concern, and inform go-forward healthcare plans. Getting results quickly and easily has always been a challenge. Historically, providers would send blood samples to a lab, wait for the lab to test the blood, and then report the results to the patient days or even weeks later. With the TruAnalyzer, all of that becomes nearly instantaneous.
Clara stands out due to her exceptional technical skills, drive, and ability to take on ever more complex problems. She is extremely bright and knowledgeable, with a deep understanding of the challenges involved in designing novel diagnostic products. Clara has a broad knowledge base, including optics, micro-precision motion control, software, firmware, and the unique needs of assay development and verification.
Her accomplishments include being the go-to person for hardware and system challenges at Truvian, leading critical panels dealing with engineering issues across the organization, and being requested as a lead for complex challenges her company encounters. Clara's outstanding achievements have already led to two promotions within just two years despite her young age.
One of Clara's most notable accomplishments was playing a central role in preparing Truvian's systems for a successful technical demonstration to a team of expert engineers. This demonstration and Q&A resulted in the company raising over $105 million in additional funding for R&D. Clara also helped set up Truvian's hardware production line with a business partner in Melbourne, Australia, where she transferred her knowledge to production staff and developed a method for alignment checks of the hematology module, a process she has since trained less-experienced technical personnel to perform.
For Clara, helping people was always the focus, but as a young person in academia, she wasn't sure how that would take shape. Over the course of her studies, and thanks to many pivotal learning experiences, she became enthralled by the healthcare industry. Now, she works day in and day out to cultivate better healthcare experiences for patients, alleviate provider challenges, and make healthcare more affordable and accessible.
