David Putrino
“Innovation is simply taking the time to solve problems that everyone else has abandoned as ‘not their problem’…If you want to be a true scientist, you need to look in all directions and leave no stone unturned in your creative approach.”
David Putrino is known as the “Chief Mad Scientist” of Not Impossible Labs, a group that creates technological solutions for humanitarian problems. His formal title is Director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mt. Sinai Health System, where he is responsible for bringing new technologies to patients in need. With a background in physical therapy, and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, he worked as a clinician in Australia, before moving to the United States, where he has served on the faculty at Weill-Cornell Medicine and Burke Medical Research Institute. Currently, he is asked to innovate every single day because it is his job to bring new technologies to patients in need. When COVID-19 hit was no exception. Within 48 hours, his team set up a remote patient monitoring program that is now serving more than 600 infected people on a daily basis. David authored the popular book “Hacking Health: How to make money and save lives in the HealthTech world.” His work has been featured in a variety of publications including Sports Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, Time Magazine, Wired, and the LA Times. David harbors an enormous respect for those scientists who engage in incremental, hypothesis-driven research, but believes his big ideas arise from working with artists, musicians and other creatives.
how does innovation influence your work?
“I am asked to innovate every single day because it is my job to bring new technologies to patients in need. When COVID-19 hit was no exception. In 48-hrs we stood up a remote patient monitoring program that is now serving over 600 people with COVID daily. To me, innovation is simply taking the time to solve problems that everyone else has abandoned as "not their problem". People see everyday struggles and they process it: "this sucks and someone should do something about it", but they don't take the next step: owning it as their problem to solve.”
where do art and your discipline meet?
“At every juncture. I'm a scientist, and people often think of traditional scientists as quantitative, rigid, rule-followers. I believe that those stereotypes harm science. True scientific discovery and innovation come from places of creativity. I regularly work with artists and musicians and other creators because that is where my ideas come from. I have enormous respect for scientists who engage in incremental, hypothesis-driven research, but that is only a single direction of science. If you want to be a true scientist, you need to look in all directions and leave no stone unturned in your creative approach.”
Biography:
David is physical therapist with a PhD in Neuroscience. He worked as a clinician in Australia, before moving to the United States to study computational neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, MIT and NYU. He has served as a faculty member at Weill-Cornell Medicine and Burke Medical Research Institute. He is currently the Director of Rehabilitation Innovation for the Mt Sinai Health System, and an Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He works to develop innovative technology solutions for individuals in need of better healthcare accessibility. He consults with Red Bull’s High Performance division and the NBA to use evidence-based technologies to improve athletic performance. He is also the “Chief Mad Scientist” of Not Impossible Labs, a group that creates technological solutions for humanitarian problems. David is the author of “Hacking Health: How to make money and save lives in the HealthTech world”, and his work has been featured on the ABC, Sport’s Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, Time Magazine, Wired and the LA Times to name just a few.