Doug Dietz designs medical imaging equipment. I’m sure he’s brilliant. I think you have to be if you design MRI machines.
In my mind, I would guess people like Doug wear white lab coats and goggles while carefully mixing chemicals in labs somewhere. Math and science and equations and parabolas and beakers sound necessary. Brilliant work, but not necessarily the picture we have in mind when we think about creativity and art. This is a horrible stereotype that I wish I didn’t have, but I’m guessing you had similar images in your head when I said he designs medical equipment.
A while back, Doug found out that almost 80% of children who had to go through his MRI machine were terrified and had to be sedated. The kids were already sick, and now doctors they didn’t know were forcing them to go through a very loud and scary machine they didn’t understand.
So Doug got creative, and turned his MRI machine into a pirate ship.
Now instead of 80% needing to be sedated, that number dropped to 10%. Heck. I want to go through that pirate ship.
I also want to be like Doug and find creative ways to solve problems and make life better for people.
Hear more of Doug’s story from David Kelley here, and then go build a better MRI machine.
Matt Ehresman 