The Incubator #379 - 💡Rethinking Phototherapy – Engineering Innovation with Steve Falk of GE Healthcare
In the final episode of our Rethinking Phototherapy series, Ben speaks with Steve Falk, Chief Engineer of the Maternal Infant Care Strategic Business Unit at GE Healthcare. With more than three decades of engineering leadership, Steve has been instrumental in the development of landmark neonatal technologies, including the Giraffe Omnibed and Panda platforms.
This conversation highlights the critical role of engineering in making phototherapy precise, reliable, and safe. Steve explains how advances in LED technology have transformed phototherapy devices, ensuring consistent irradiance and long product life. He describes how engineers translate clinical needs—wavelength, intensity, surface coverage, and distance—into product requirements, and how rigorous usability testing with clinicians shapes intuitive bedside tools. The discussion also explores innovation on the horizon, from refining intermittent phototherapy strategies to integrating technologies that simplify care and support earlier discharge.
Listeners will gain a behind-the-scenes perspective on how engineering teams think about phototherapy as a true pharmacotherapy, and how collaboration between clinicians and industry can directly improve outcomes for newborns and families. This episode closes the series by reminding us that innovation in neonatal care happens not only in clinical practice, but also in the design labs where these essential tools are created.
As always, feel free to send us questions, comments, or suggestions to our email: nicupodcast@gmail.com. You can also contact the show through Instagram or Twitter, @nicupodcast. Or contact Ben and Daphna directly via their Twitter profiles: @drnicu and @doctordaphnamd. The papers discussed in today's episode are listed and timestamped on the webpage linked below.
Enjoy!