User:Oughtta Be Otters/sandbox/Catherine Mohr

Catherine J. Mohr (b. 1968) is a medical researcher from New Zealand specializing in robotics for surgery (telemanipulator). She had also built cars for.... and studied green architecture. She is currently President of the Intuitive Foundation, the corporate foundation of Intuitive Surgical.

CATHERINE MOHR Birth date: Nov. 23, 1968 Birthplace: Dunedin, New Zealand (bridge)

Family
Mohr was born in Dunedin, New Zealand.(bridge) Her mother was a biostatistician and her father was a biochemist. (bridge; https://technical-community-spotlight.ieee.org/dr-catherine-mohr/; Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical) When she was a preschooler her family moved to the United States so har father could pursue postdoctoral research. While her parents always intended to return to New Zealand, they never could find employment in the same place, so Mohr grew up in the US. She did keep her New Zealand citizenship, however. (bridge, Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical; HAMISH, MCNICOL. "Be flexible in choices entrepreneurs told." Dominion Post, The (Wellington, New Zealand), sec. BUSINESS, 27 May 2014, p. B005. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/155B81041DEFE120. Accessed 16 Oct. 2021.)

Mohr's relationship with her spouse, Paul Mohr, started when she broke her pelvis in the year 2000, during a horseback riding incident. Immobilized for six weeks, her friends took care of her and had gatherings at her home, which is how their relationship got off the ground. (Zomorodi, Manoush. "Catherine Mohr: A Love Story... That Begins With A Sea Urchin." NPR: Blogs, sec. The Sandbox, 11 June 2021. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/18311DBB9530F128. Accessed 16 Oct. 2021.) They have daughter, Natalie. (bridge)

Education
An avid tinker and bicycle racer, Mohr worked as a bicycle mechanic near Boston while in high school. (bridge, (https://technical-community-spotlight.ieee.org/dr-catherine-mohr/))  (bridge - May, Patrick. "'DA VINCI' ON CUTTING EDGE OF ROBOTICS? - DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH FOR INTUITIVE SURGICAL, A NATURAL-BORN 'TINKERER,' IS HOPING TO BRIDGE FIELDS OF MEDICINE, TECHNOLOGY." San Jose Mercury News (CA), Valley Final ed., sec. Business, 14 June 2014, p. 5B. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/14E8439B077D86B8. Accessed 16 Oct. 2021.).

When Mohr matriculated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she was planning to study Chemistry. Then, during her Sophomore year, she began helping out on a friend's solar car racing team. (https://technical-community-spotlight.ieee.org/dr-catherine-mohr/) During her first year on the team, of which she remained a member through her Senior year, Mohr realized that tinkering was what she loved and switcher her major to mechanical engineering. (https://technical-community-spotlight.ieee.org/dr-catherine-mohr/) While on the solar car racing team, Mohr not only helped race in the US, but also worked on a car for Switzerland’s Tour de Sol and in 1987 she raced in Australia’s first World Solar Challenge, from Darwin to Adelaide. (Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical)

After completing her B.S. in mechanical engineering, Mohr continued with graduate school in the same field, also at MIT. (https://spectrum.ieee.org/dream-job-catherine-mohr) Mohr graduated in 1992; her Masters' Thesis was entitled: "The Design of a Compact Actuator System for a Robotic Wrist/Hand." Although she was originally working towards a Ph.D., Mohr decided to leave school and work on electric cars. (bridge)

In 1999, Mohr began fulfilling premed requirements through UCLA's extension school, and then matriculated at Stanford University School of Medicine. (Sea urchin) She earned her Doctor of Medicine in 2006, but elected not to move on to a residence program.

Career
From her bike mechanic days in high school, Mohr remained busy.

At MIT she held a number of teaching assistantships and research positions: under Dr. David Gordon Wilson, Mohr helped with a light for a bicycle that was powered by a crank generator; she worked on orthotic knee braces under Dr. Will Durfee; and was a TA for undergraduate design courses. She also worked for the Howe Lab at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, as an Applications Engineer for Premise, Inc., and from 1989-1992 she undertook various consulting jobs for Anderson Consulting.

When Mohr left school to work on electric cars, she became Rod Millen's program manager in California.(bridge) She quickly moved on to be a mechanical engineer at AeroVironment, in Monrovia, Calif., (https://spectrum.ieee.org/dream-job-catherine-mohr), working on fuel cells and hybrid batteries for land vehicles (bridge) as well as high-altitude aircraft. (https://spectrum.ieee.org/dream-job-catherine-mohr, ) She founded a laboratory focusing on creating fuel-cell systems for aircraft designed to stay aloft for months at a time. (https://spectrum.ieee.org/dream-job-catherine-mohr, Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical)

After about five years of this work, Mohr considered how she wanted to move forward. (https://technical-community-spotlight.ieee.org/dr-catherine-mohr/) She once told the New York Times that her interest in engineering is "about improving the human condition, and also, not incidentally, making the science better for when we and our loved ones need it." (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/16/magazine/tech-design-medicine-phenome.html) So, although she was doing research in partnerships with the major US car companies, the fact that in the mid-1990s there was no sign of hybrid or electric cars would be sold to consumers became an issue for her. ”https://spectrum.ieee.org/dream-job-catherine-mohr As she contemplated her career path, she observed the testing of experimental medical devices during surgeries at Massachusetts General Hospital. When the technology did not work, Mohr started contemplating the engineering challenges of designing technology without a deep knowledge of the working of the human body. Eventually, Mohr decided to attend medical school.

Mohr once noted that during her five years of med school, which allowed for a year of research, the idea of applying robotics to surgery really started to take hold in the medical community. (https://technical-community-spotlight.ieee.org/dr-catherine-mohr/) From investigating minimally invasive surgical tools to assisting on laparoscopic surgeries, as well as working as a teaching assistant, Mohr delved into interdisciplinary studies. ( (Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical)) With Dr. Myriam Curet, she co-developed a laparoscopic Roux-enY gastric bypass.(Mohr CJ, Nadzam GS, Alami RS, Sanchez BR, Curet MJ. Totally robotic laparoscopic Roux-en-Y Gastric bypass: results from 75 patients. Obes Surg. 2006 Jun;16(6):690-6. doi: 10.1381/096089206777346826. PMID: 16756726.) It became part of the da Vinci Surgical System, developed by Intuitive Surgical, where she would later spend much of her career.

While in medical school, Mohr also founded medical device start-up Veresure to market the LapCap, a tool she invented that made laparoscopic surgery safer. During laparoscopic surgery, it is necessary to lift the abdominal wall away from the abdominal cavity, or else surgeons risk harming the intestines or a large blood vessel. (Usta, Taner A et al. “Is there any difference between the distances created by towel clamp lifting and towel clamp plus manual lifting of the anterior abdominal wall for direct trocar entry in laparoscopic gynecologic surgery? A prospective interventional study.” Journal of the Turkish German Gynecological Association vol. 18,4 (2017): 174-180. doi:10.4274/jtgga.2016.0203) At the time, the common way to lift the area was to use towel clips on either side of the navel. (Any difference?) Mohr invented a bell-shaped device that creates a vacuum, thereby lifting the abdominal wall and creating an air pocket in the abdomen. (Greenberg, James A. “LapCap™.” Reviews in Obstetrics and Gynecology vol. 1,2 (2008): 84–85.) She sold it to Aragon Surgical in 2006. (bridge; (Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical))

Since 2006, Mohr has also been an associate professor at the Stanford Medical School and studying methods for using simulations in medical training. (Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical) Additionally, she has been on the medical faculty at Singularity University, located at Moffet Field, since 2009.

By 2001, her spouse was already working for Intuitive Surgical, developer of the da Vinci surgical robot. Since she was interested in the potential for robotics lessening the force exerted on the body during surgery, she suggested some of her mentors at med school try the da Vinci. She began consulting for Intuitive, and eventually went to work for them full time. (bridge)

Over several years she was Director of Medical Research, and then Senior Director and Vice President of the same department. Initially she continued work on techniques for minimizing pressure on the body during surgery. Over time, she looked at applications for new surgical technologies, including focal therapy for destroying tumors and infrared vision markers. (Surgical robotics CATHERINE MOHR Medical research director, Intuitive Surgical) She then spent about three years as Intuitive Surgical's Vice President of Strategy, before creating their Intuitive Foundation in 2018. (https://bostonglobalforum.org/author/ngango/page/3/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/16/magazine/tech-design-medicine-phenome.html)

She also advises startups in the U.K., the U.S., and New Zealand. (Sea urchin; http://web.stanford.edu/class/me571/mohr.html)

Patents

 * 10,600,510 Video content searches in a medical context (Mar 2020)
 * 10,588,703 Method and system for operating a teleoperated surgical instrument and a manual instrument (Mar 2020)
 * 10,398,520 Minimally invasive surgical system Sept 2019
 * 10,282,881 Rendering tool information as graphic overlays on displayed images of tools May 2019
 * 10,188,472 Medical robotic system with coupled control modes Jan 2019
 * 10,178,368 Stereo imaging system with automatic disparity adjustment for displaying close range objects Jan 2019
 * 10,137,575 Synthetic representation of a surgical robot Nov 2018
 * 10,028,791 Method and system for absolute three-dimensional measurements… twist-insensitive shape sensor July 2018
 * 10,008,017 Rendering tool information as graphic overlays on displayed images of tools June 2018
 * 9,980,630 Minimally invasive surgical system May 2018
 * 9,877,633 Efficient and interactive bleeding detection in a surgical system Jan 2018
 * 9,801,526 Minimally invasive surgical system Oct 2017
 * 9,789,608 Synthetic representation of a surgical robot Oct 2017
 * 9,724,169 Bracing of bundled medical devices for single port entry, robotically assisted medical procedures Aug 2017
 * 9,636,177 Medical device with orientable tip for robotically directed laser cutting and biomaterial application May 2017
 * 9,636,000 Retraction of tissue for single port entry, robotically assisted medical procedures May 2017
 * 9,492,240 Virtual measurement tool for minimally invasive surgery Nov 2016
 * 9,452,276 Catheter with removable vision probe Sep 2016
 * 9,402,690 Efficient 3-D telestration for local and remote robotic proctoring Aug 2016
 * 9,333,042 Medical robotic system with coupled control modes May 2016
 * 9,285,246 Method and system for absolute 3D measurements using… shape sensor Mar 2016
 * 9,216,061 Medical device with orientable tip for robotic. laser cutting and biomaterial app. Dec 2015
 * 9,155,592 Virtual Measurement tool for minimally invasive surgery Oct 2015
 * 9,060,678 Minimally invasive surgical system Jun 2015
 * 9,043,018 Medical device with orientable tip for robotic… laser cutting and biomaterial app May 2015
 * 8,830,224 Efficient 3-D telestration for local robotic proctoring Sep 2014
 * 8,803,955 Augmented stereoscopic visualization for a surgical robot using a … modified prism Aug 2014
 * 8,771,180 Retraction of tissue for single port entry, robotically assisted medical procedures July 2014
 * 8,740,885 Guide tube control of minimally invasive surgical instrument Jun 2014
 * 8,712,151 Method and structure for image local contrast enhancement Apr 2014
 * 8,706,184 Meth. and apparatus for displaying enhanced imaging data on a clinical image Apr 2014
 * 8,620,473 Medical robotic system with coupled control modes Dec 2013
 * 8,517,933 Retraction of tissue for single port entry, robotically asst. medical procedures Aug 2013
 * 8,228,368 Augmented stereoscopic visualization for a surgical … Jul 2012
 * 8,182,415 Minimally invasive surgical system May 2012
 * 8,169,468 Augmented stereoscopic visualization for a surgical robot May 2012
 * 8,167,793 Augmented stereoscopic visualization for a surgical robot using time duplexing May 2012
 * 8,029,516 Bracing of bundled medical devices for single port entry … medical procedures Oct 2011
 * 7,585,281 Vacuum-actuated tissue perforation device for establishing pneumoperitoneum Sep 2009
 * 7,507,209 Method for establishing pneumoperitoneum Mar 2009
 * 5,224,585 Carrier for coded containers Jul 1993. (https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Catherine+J.+Mohr)

Awards and honors

 * MIT Clapp and Poliak Award For excellence in undergraduate design and research (1987)
 * MIT DeFlorez award, (Second Place) For excellence in design (1988)
 * Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. Elected to Full Membership (1992)
 * NASA Public Service Group Award, Centurion/Pathfinder Team, AeroVironment (1998)
 * Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, Inducted as Fellow (2000)
 * Intuitive Surgical “Agility Award” (2009)
 * Intuitive Surgical “Inventor of the Year,” shared (2011)
 * Frost and Sullivan “Innovators of Silicon Valley” Award (2012)
 * USA Science and Engineering Festival One of the “Nifty Fifty” noted science mentors (2012)
 * University of Auckland Academic Visiting Fellowship (2014)
 * “Flying Kiwi” New Zealand HiTech Hall of Fame (2014)
 * World Class New Zealander (2014)
 * Hood Fellowship (2014)
 * NEXT Magazine Woman of the year, Health and Sciences Category 2015
 * IPENZ Pickering Lecture series 2017, named lecturer
 * Intuitive Surgical "Presidential 'Grit' Award" (2017)


 * Silicon Valley Business Journal Women of Influence (2020)

Hobbies and professional sidelines
Mohr scuba dives and enjoys traveling and cooking. (bridge; Zomorodi, Manoush. "Catherine Mohr: A Love Story... That Begins With A Sea Urchin." NPR: Blogs, sec. The Sandbox, 11 June 2021. NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current, infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/18311DBB9530F128. Accessed 16 Oct. 2021.) During medical school she invented a chocolate coin stamping machine, although it never went anywhere. (bridge) In 2011, Mohr began playing cello; she told the Mercury News a few years later that she did so because "one should always be a beginner at something." (bridge)

In addition to her main career path, she got very interested in green architecture and developed a certain level of expertise in the area. (flexible)

List TED talks

Catherine Mohr: Surgery's past, present and robotic future - TED https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_surgery_s_past_present_and_robotic_future?language=en (2009)

Catherine Mohr: The tradeoffs of building green | TED Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_the_tradeoffs_of_building_green?language=en (2010)

Catherine Mohr: How I became part sea urchin | TED Talk https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_how_i_became_part_sea_urchin?language=en (2018)

List publications??