How I work — guān xīn 關心, to care
The mechanism is never the point. These four principles sit under every engagement.Start with the human
Deep user, clinical and field research before a single mechanism. I design for the moments that matter to real people.
Rigour is a form of care
Design control, evidence and safety aren't bureaucracy — in health, they're how you honour the people who'll depend on it.
Ship, don't theorize
Working prototypes over slideware. From cadaver lab to the App Store, I make the impossible tangible — fast, with tiny teams.
Technology for good
Design for humanistic solutions; technology to scale them and grant superpowers. A social-enterprise ethos, applied commercially.
Services
Come for the technical expertise. The design thinking + human-centred approach come as standard.Product & technology strategy
Figure out what's next. Landscape analysis, opportunity framing and technical due diligence for teams facing unknown unknowns.
Engineering design & prototyping
Concept to working device — mechanisms, medical devices and hardware, under design control (ISO 13485) where it counts.
Design & UX for regulated spaces
Research-led interaction and UI design for clinical and consumer health products that real people can actually use.
AI-leveraged lean delivery
Ship real products with very small teams. I run production and ops the way I built Singfinger — two people, heavy automation and AI tooling.
Selected work
Atoms & bits — from surgical instruments to digital therapeutics.
MEDTECH · ATOMS
Articulating surgical instruments
Manually articulating endoscopic devices for minimally-invasive surgery. Named inventor on 13 US patents — wetlab to OR.
MEDTECH · ATOMS
IV nutrition vacuum system
A peelable multi-chamber IV bag and vacuum-based system for on-site reconstitution of freeze-dried micronutrients.
MEDTECH · ATOMS
Dignified ostomy coupling
Linkage-based and polymer-film iris coupling concepts, reinventing ostomy care to be more empathetic to emotional needs.
DIGITAL HEALTH · BITS
Gamified asthma management
A pitch-shifting whistle plus a smartphone app deriving spirometry from sound — keeping kids engaged with their care.
DIGITAL HEALTH · BITS
Music from your heartbeat
Stress & anxiety programme using breathing, CBT and biometric-generated music. Innovate UK seed; UCL clinical partnership. Acquired by Huma.
SOCIAL ENTERPRISE · BITS
Living well with dementia
A micro-social network for families caring for a loved one. Full-stack MVP; seed from Design Council & UK Dept of Health.
Guanxin Labs — products, for sale now
Singfinger
A German sign-supported communication platform for non-verbal and disabled children and their parents, teachers and therapists. An iOS & Android app, a 700+ icon sign library built on a custom 3D rig, 150+ free videos on YouTube including WDR co-productions — and the Singfinger Club paid membership. Built and run by two people, leaning hard on AI tooling. Sold under Guanxin Labs.
- Platform
- iOS · Android
- Sign library
- 700+ "Alexicon"
- YouTube
- 150+ · incl. WDR
- Club launch
- 18 founding members
- Trading as
- guanxin.labs
Why I do this
guān xīn (關心) — verb — to care for, to be concerned with. It's the name and the whole point: design for humanistic solutions, technology to scale them and grant superpowers. Firmly tech-for-good.
Surgical instruments at J&J, NHS innovation at the Helix Centre inside St Mary's Hospital, product consulting for Baxter, ConvaTec and Illumina — and most recently Singfinger, built from scratch with a team of two. Different problems, one thread: build the thing that actually helps.
I'm looking for what's next: a product or technology leadership role, a fractional / consulting engagement, or a founding team — at the intersection of healthcare, medtech and AI-leveraged product development.
- Based
- Cologne / BonnTroisdorf, Germany
- Languages
- EN nativeDE B2 · working
- Passports
- UK · UScontract without visas
- Sectors
- Health · Medtechconsumer · social
- Open to
- Freelance · fractional& the right permanent role