Employee Spotlight: Dave Hughett

What do all existing AtriCure MIS and concomitant clamps have in common? Other than being clamps, of course, they all use the same platform designed by the one and only Dave Hughett – basement drummer, questionably-retired marathoner, CAD master, and Principal Mechanical Designer in product development.

Dave has had a long and somewhat fate-filled career in the medical device design industry – 26 years long to be exact. It all started not too far from here at Colerain High School where Dave took two years of vocational drafting. And we’re talking old school drafting by hand, not by CAD (it didn’t exist way back then). At the young age of 16, Dave started his first job drawing toys for Kenner Product and learning the finer points of injection-molded plastics.

Plastics paid off and turned out to be the key to Dave’s entrance into the world of medical device design. In 1982, there was a growing demand for disposable devices for various medical procedures, and Dave put his skills to work for Senco Medical. At Senco, he designed disposable surgical tools for Ethicon, Inc. (sound familiar?). Ethicon ended up acquiring Senco, and the whole thing became the company we know it as today: Ethicon Endo-Surgery (EES).
During the 15 years he spent at EES, Dave moved up from drafter to lead staff designer and had the opportunity to work on a number of products that are still on the market today. However, in 1997, he made the tough decision to leave EES and his hometown of Cincinnati and moved his whole family to Atlanta, GA to work for the start-up medical device company Novoste.

Novoste provided a smaller working environment which allowed Dave to contribute in ways that weren’t possible at a large company like EES. But only a few years went by before new technology began to overtake the company’s product, and Dave knew he had to look for something else.

And that’s where fate stepped in in the form of Jim Lucky. (Yes, as in AtriCure’s delightful VP of Quality Assurance and Healthcare Compliance Jim Lucky).

Dave and Jim had been coworkers at EES. When Dave left for Atlanta, Jim left for North Carolina and a company called Teleflex Medical. Seems that Teleflex needed a good medical device designer, and Jim thought Dave was the perfect man for the job. “Dave’s talents are difficult to duplicate, and his name is always at the top of the list whenever a unique design challenge is presented.” So Jim called Dave up and invited him out for an interview, and before Dave knew it, he was loading his family in the moving van and heading to North Carolina.

While at Teleflex, Dave designed their new line of surgical clip appliers for general surgery. Unfortunately, the company was also in transition during this time and in the process of consolidating its medical division. Enter fate and Jim Lucky (again).

Jim had left Teleflex a few months earlier for a new opportunity in Cincinnati. You guessed it – AtriCure. According to Jim, “when I started at AtriCure, one of the first things I noticed was that we had the very best technology, but our products were not as visibly or ergonomically appealing as they could be. Dave is one of the best in the business, and he was the first person I mentioned to the staff.” With the siren song of home calling, Dave didn’t need to be asked twice. In June of 2004, Dave and his family returned to Cincinnati, and AtriCure had a new principal mechanical designer.

Over the years, Dave has been the author or co-author of 24 patents. Currently, he works for Sam Privitera in the advanced development group.

According to Sam, “Dave Hughett embodies the creativity that AtriCure has been built upon. Dave is unique in two very special ways. First, he has the ability to put the obvious aside and find solutions that are more ingenious and inspired. While most of us get hung up on our first thought, Dave continues to push the envelope until he finds all opportunities. Second, he has the ability to create mechanical mechanisms far more elegant than most; in 20 years of design engineering, I have never met anyone with his mechanism design talent, and I doubt I ever will.”

At the 2007 company picnic, Dave was honored with a Heart of AtriCure award for his numerous contributions to the company.

“Beyond his technical talent, Dave represents the Heart of AtriCure through his dedication to the company goals and ideas. He is committed to developing the best possible products for our patients, but he is equally faithful to meeting the expectations of his peers”, says Sam.

“He has been integral in moving our company beyond our original device. He led the design process for our current clamp platform, was instrumental in the design of our transfer guide, and played a major role in our Synergy platform development. His latest challenge is to help the company develop the next stream of products that will continue to make our procedures less invasive and more complete.”

How does Dave feel about this challenge? At AtriCure, he is “having a blast”. “I am always appreciative that a company like AtriCure is willing to invest in my ideas. I have been very blessed in my career that many of my ideas have become products and have a positive impact on individuals in need of medical treatment.”

When he’s not designing, Dave helps at EPIC, the middle school ministry at his church. He can also be spotted frequently at the gym, keeping his love of food in check. Dave and his wife of 26 years, Sheila, have three children and three grandchildren and love to travel to the mountains, especially in the fall.