Hello! I’m Namratha Potharaj.
I am an interdisciplinary professional and an avid creative. My biomedical engineering background, work in global health, design experiences and creative practice all inform one another.
Working with me means following a systems thinking and a human-centered design approach to unmet and under-addressed needs in healthcare. Recently, I’ve begun a practice in visual communication design in health and medtech. I don't look at communication design as a supplement. I treat it as a critical aspect that makes or breaks medical device adoption, as a driver of positive behaviors, and an enabler of critical decision-making.
At the same time, I recognize the power of expressive, culturally responsive, and context-adaptive visual communication design. Therefore, I think about the design problem from a macro level (who is it for, what purpose does it serve, what call to action does it prompt) and a micro level (which color palettes best serve the intended use and user, what style is effective, which accessibility considerations need to be considered, and which boundaries do we need to work with).
My Background
My background is in biomedical engineering, global health, healthcare innovation and design, with a specialization in visual communication and an independent exploration in visual art.
I finished my bioengineering undergraduate studies at the University of Washington in Seattle and my Master's degree in Bioengineering Innovation and Design from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. This was also where I worked on the technical and commercial development of a low-cost cataract surgical technology as a healthcare innovation fellow in a startup environment. I also completed a 9-month professional certification at the University of Washington in Natural Language Technologies within the Computational Linguistics department, supplementing my skills and interest in communication and one of its most active areas of development — Large Language Models.
Throughout my professional career, I've worked on immersive clinical, global health, translational research, and design and engineering projects that made me a strong systems thinker and communicator. Being part of the teaching team at various levels throughout my career further honed my skills in communicating concepts simply and effectively.
Outside of BME and design, I take on commissions and do independent exploration in drawing, painting, and digital art.
Awards & Accomplishments
NSF Innovation Corps (I-Corps)
Johns Hopkins Cohen Translational Engineering Fund
Alliance for a Healthier World Impact Grant
VentureWell E-Teams & BME-IDEA International
CBID–Abell Foundation Fellowship
Amazon Catalyst Fellow
Levinson Research Scholar
Mary Gates Research Scholarship
Honorable Mention, NIBIB & VentureWell Debut Challenge
Intellectual property in low-cost cataract surgical technology (patent pending)
100+ global stakeholder interviews conducted in 7 weeks
Multi-site clinical usability research in India
Global Health & Design guest speaker, UC San Design
80+ targeted subscribers to On Visual Communication Design newsletter