A day in the life
Let's get to know our team a bit more, and what it’s like to work at Oxford Heartbeat.
What is your role at Oxford Heartbeat and how long have you been at the company?
I'm Mirko, I'm a Computational Mechanical Engineer, and I've worked at Oxford Heartbeat since January 2021.
Walk us through a typical day for you at Oxford Heartbeat
My day starts with a stand-up, which is a meeting that we have with all the members of the development team. It's useful when working remotely so everybody knows what other people are doing and what they'll work on during the day. After that, I usually get on with some smaller tasks or I have meetings with our interns, developers or consultants. Generally, I keep bigger tasks that require more focused work in the afternoon. My job focuses on the implementation of computational models of medical devices. I work on algorithms to be implemented in our software, but also on complex models used to validate those algorithms, and some research tasks as well. We often carry out research studies in collaboration with doctors, so I help analyse data and write papers for publication.
I chose to work at Oxford Heartbeat because…
My PhD was in mechanical engineering with a thesis on the development of computational models to simulate the blood flow in aortic dissection for clinical support. After completing my PhD, I was looking for a company where I could apply my skills to develop a product that could have an impact on healthcare. I think that joining Oxford Heartbeat was the natural continuation of my career because its technology is very related to the topic of my studies and interests, and it was just perfect for me! Working on products that can really change clinical practice and improve patients' lives is very fulfilling.
What excites you about the future of Oxford Heartbeat?
I'm really excited to see our software integrated into the clinical practice of UK hospitals, but also in Europe and in the US in the near future. It would be amazing to see our product used by interventional radiologists worldwide making very difficult interventions more precise and successful.
A fun fact about me is…
It's more a curiosity than a fun fact…My grandfather used to work in the laboratory of Giulio Natta, who was an Italian chemical engineer who won the Nobel Prize for the invention of polypropylene plastic polymers. When I studied biomedical engineering at Politecnico di Milano, the technical university of Milan, I ended up doing my master's thesis in the department named after him. That was quite a coincidence!
