As a Product Associate at Zimmer Biomet, one of the world’s leading orthopaedic engineering companies, Caitlin’s role sits at the intersection of surgical care, data analytics, and product marketing.
Here, she helps build and configure a digital care management platform that connects patients with their surgeons and tracks recovery outcomes. While she’s worked everywhere from operating theatres in Australia to offices in New Zealand, her experience has already included plenty of unexpected moments and pleasant surprises.
Having graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) and specialising in biomedical engineering with a focus on nanoscale biotechnology, Caitlin’s degree blended science, maths, and biology with her strong desire to help people in a meaningful way.
“It’s been a very rewarding path to go down because the biomedical engineering side of healthcare means you get that hands-on practical side of things but you’re not necessarily working directly with patients,” she says.“You have that layer of separation yet you’re still really part of that journey to improving people’s quality of life.”
Working within orthopaedics, Caitlin has witnessed her fair share of hip replacements, knee replacements and shoulder replacements as well as sport medicine procedures, but appreciates that she’s not in theatres each and every day.
“It’s really cool because you still get to be part of that surgical world without necessarily having to be in the operating theatre all the time – you can just be that important partner to make sure the patient has the best surgical experience.”
The start of something great
Caitlin’s journey into the world of biomedical engineering started from a young age. “When I was in high school, I really loved all things science, biology, and math,” she says. “So, choosing to do a degree in biomedical engineering allowed me to combine all three with my desire to help people.”
What made her time studying at the University especially enjoyable was how hands-on her degree was. “There was a lot of opportunity to do lab work – from cell work-up to metal work – even in first year, which was a lot of fun,” she explains. “There was also a coding aspect, which was a huge challenge, but very satisfying once you got it right.”
It’s a really great degree for anyone wanting to do something quite technical while still having that creative problem solving aspect.
Caitlin Baska, University of Sydney alumna
Where curiosity meets technology
The combination of tech meets medicine has proven particularly rewarding for Caitlin. “It's that bridge between making the tools to help those medical procedures and helping the medical world, and it’s a really great degree for anyone wanting to do something quite technical while still having that creative problem solving aspect,” she says.
She now works on the back end build-out of the patient pathway program for surgeons at Zimmer Biomet, so they can get the best possible outcome for their patients, as well as reviewing the data and analytics behind it all.
“This provides direct understanding of the market, awareness around user feedback, and then we use these insights to improve the product to make it as good as possible,” she explains. “There’s so much data being captured, but it’s providing insights that we can share back to surgeons about their patient recovery.”
Embracing the unexpected
“Initially, I had no idea my job even existed but in the med-tech marketing world, so many people I know within this space have come from an engineering background,” says Caitlin. “Half the people working within the marketing team are also bio medical engineers by background.”
What she enjoys the most about her role however is the level of variety she experiences each day. “It’s always changing because you’re in a heavily research-driven space, so it feels like it’s constantly evolving, which is really exciting” she adds.
Leading the way
While Caitlin’s still fairly new to her industry, she’s already taking the lead on various initiatives including the organisation’s internship program.
“It was so exciting because we got five engineering students and one business student and I was able to curate their experience in the same way that I got the opportunity to come in myself as a student,” she says. “It was great to see things with fresh eyes and see what the orthopaedic world was like and what the industry was like.”
Caitlin also leads the APAC Young Professional Network at Zimmer Biomet – an employee resource group. “Being able to run these events through that channel and help people from a professional development perspective has been really great, even though I’m still learning myself.”
AI is always evolving, which is why we regularly meet with our AI team to get a sense of how some of our AI tools can help with prognosis of patients, to being able to understand where they might be headed and to pick out suboptimal outcomes.
Caitlin Baksa, University of Sydney alumna
Using AI to inform patient outcomes
While constantly changing, Caitlin see’s the benefits and limitations of what artificial intelligence can achieve within her industry. “A lot of what I do is in-person interaction, but AI is definitely useful as an assisting tool to help with general day-to-day things,” she says.
“Also within the product space – AI is always evolving, which is why we regularly meet with our AI team to get a sense of how some of our AI tools can help with prognosis of patients, to being able to understand where they might be headed and to pick out suboptimal outcomes,” she adds. “That then feeds back into that therapeutic monitoring, giving surgeons the tools to are able to track and understand where patients are going.”
Ultimately, Caitlin believes those working within any biomedical company all want the same thing for their patients – to have the best possible outcomes and the best quality of life – no matter how that may come to fruition.
“AI as a tool is a great way to be able to understand all the different details from a patient’s life and pull it into complex algorithms that can help to figure out the best pathway forward, and that aspect is super powerful.”
For those seeking a degree combining tech and data with curiosity and creativity, Caitlin’s journey is a reminder that sometimes the most rewarding careers are the ones you never planned for.
Header image: provided.