John Anastasiadis is the Director, Human Factors and Design for Smith+Nephew, where he is leading and building Human Factors, Industrial Design and UI/UX Design capabilities across global franchises: Sports Medicine, Orthopedics, Wound Management and Robotics.
John’s innovation in healthcare comes through the establishment of human factors processes and by employing user-centered design principles and practices. This approach, in collaboration with stakeholders, contributes to the creation of value adding products and services that mitigate product misuse, reduce user variability and enable better patient outcomes.
Prior to Smith+Nephew, John was a part of J&J’s Industrial Design and Human Factors team and designed for several brands and consulting firms. He has been able to contribute to the success of multiple categories of products ranging from pharmaceutical delivery systems to consumer softgoods.
Many of John’s designs have gone on to earn design and utility patents. Additionally, he served as Visiting Adjunct Professor of Industrial Design at Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey.
John earned a Bachelor’s of Industrial Design at Pratt Institute followed by an MBA from Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.
Chair | Medical Design Section
John Anastasiadis, IDSA, is Director of Human Factors+Design at Smith+Nephew, and Chair of IDSA’s Medical Section. Medical design-related virtual events he’s organized have drawn over 200 registrants, and have focused on cognitive human factors for designers.
2021 was a rollercoaster year, John says—not without hope and optimism, but also punctuated by variants of this novel coronavirus, natural disasters, inflation and supply chain issues. “As a designer and leader, I find comfort in knowing that the current situation is at least calling attention to the inefficiencies and problems present in current products, systems, and services,” he acknowledges. “Designers are good at defining and communicating problems in more compelling and convincing ways. I’m inspired by what designers of all types are capable of doing to gain alignment amongst stakeholders and clearly articulate strategic direction, whether in healthcare, climate issues, politics, or other wicked problems.”
According to John, we as designers have a once-in-a-lifetine opportunity to step up, lead through the chaos, and drive change. “While my day job has me driving innovation around surgical devices and systems,” John notes, “I’m also supporting healthcare efforts at a personal level. My daughter has a rare disease, and this year I was inspired to create a coloring book called Rare Adventures Coloring Book. As far as I know, this is the only coloring book dedicated to children with special needs. All proceeds from the sale of this book go to support rare disease research.”
John’s hopes for 2022 include continuing to build the Human Factors+Design team at Smith+Nephew, while further increasing the value that the IDSA Medical Section provides IDSA members. “I believe that designers need to dig even deeper in some areas and increase their understanding of how the healthcare and medtech industry operates,” he says. “This will allow our industry to better engage with other functions and business leaders, as not enough healthcare corporations have design leaders at the executive level. In order to do this well, we will need to re-establish the human connection lost in the past two years and ‘reconnect’ in ’22.”
