Product Manager/Owner

The Helix Centre team works at the heart of healthcare delivery.  Operating out of St Mary’s Hospital, we build and scale solutions that reimagine healthcare.  Founded by Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art, at the core of what we do is a drive to make a real and lasting difference to the lives of patients and health care professionals through design and technology.

This Product Manager role reports to the Managing Director of the Helix Centre, Daniel Dickens and is responsible for the product deliverables on a Helix innovation project, as well as management of key stakeholder relationships and project team members within a matrix structure. The first project and product in the pipeline is in Paediatric Patient Safety, responsible for day-to-day management of the one of the Helix Centre’s most exciting and high-impact projects to date.

The starting point for this project is to understand the problem you will be helping solve. Medication errors are alarmingly common, and three times more common in children than in adults. Errors are yet more common in paediatric emergencies. Even though under-detection and under-reporting are the norm, an error is estimated to occur once in ten drug administrations in emergency units.

In paediatric emergencies, clinicians must make a series of complex calculations to determine the correct doses, dilutions and rates of administration of medication, all of which are often conducted under extreme pressure. A large child weighs up to 30 times that of a new born baby, and this variation adds potential for large miscalculation errors that simply does not exist in adult medicine. This problem has been neglected by technological advances in healthcare, and most attempts to improve medication safety have focused on adults.

Over the past two years, the Helix Centre has prototyped a computerised decision support system to calculate the correct dose and drug preparation information for any child. Once provided with the patient’s weight, age, and medication, the software determines the safe dosing parameters for any given drug and a suitable method of administration for that individual patient. A personalised syringe label is printed, on-demand, that graphically illustrates on the syringe the safe preparation and administration instructions for the medication. We are working with the British National Formulary on a novel database to ensure the system has the most up-to-date, UK-specific medication information at any time.

After successfully completing a large, simulated trial, we have received prestigious, multi-year funding to bring this pioneering solution through the final stages of digital product development, regulatory approval and clinical trial at St. Mary’s Hospital in London.

 We are looking for someone who likes to get things done, who will thrive in a unique healthcare environment. It’s highly collaborative and interdisciplinary, working with a range of specialists, from designers, technologists to clinicians and academics. As Product Manager of this project in Paediatrics, you will:

• Work closely with (and have a dotted line to…) the Helix Centre’s Clinical Lead, Dr.
  Nicholas Appelbaum, who has led our work in this field and understands the problem you are solving inside and out.
• Own the roadmap for the final stage of our iOS application development, technical
  validation, and back end database and API development. This is our first solution entering clinical trial, with multiple products coming into focus.
• Provide core, agile project management and co-supervision for a dynamic team on a day-to-day basis, including an iOS developer, UX designer, back end developers, clinical research nurses and clinical trial manager, as well as specialist contractors when required.
• Facilitate the necessary collaboration internally and externally to deliver on an ambitious plan to bring a Class III medical device through build, regulatory and legal approval, clinical trial and go-to market.
• Support Helix leadership with the management of key stakeholders, including the British National Formulary, Imperial College NHS Trust, Imperial College’s Institute for Global Health Innovation (Chaired by Professor. the Lord Ara Darzi) and our core funders at the National Institute for Health Research.
• Work with Helix leadership on commercial endeavours, including IPR protection, regulatory and CE-marking, closing key commercial agreements and potential R&D partnerships.

 About You

You are a people-centred leader and product launcher, with sound analytical and communication skills. You are totally focused on delivery, a completer/finisher through and through. You will be comfortable in a fast paced, changing environment, with a good feel for when to expand creatively and when and how to focus.

Given the complex nature of the project within the regulated medical devices space, it is our preference for our Product Manager to have prior experience in the medical devices / medical software arena. This is however not a pre-requisite and we will consider outstanding applicants who have successfully delivered complex products in other areas.