Ruth Ann Crystal

About Ruth Ann Crystal

Board certified, Stanford trained Ob/Gyn physician entrepreneur with interests in healthcare innovation and human centered design.Dr. Crystal has worked with dozens healthcare start ups advising them on business development, social media strategy, product development and discovery of the unmet needs of physicians and patients. In addition, as a mentor for incubators including Stanford Start X, Philips Healthworks and for Backstage Capital, Dr. Crystal has coached companies in AI and digital health, medical devices and biotech. At StartX, Dr. Crystal has been a neighborhood lead for biotechnology, digital IT and product strategy and customer development. She is also helping female founders with networking and mentorship.Dr. Crystal is a thought leader on healthcare innovation and has over followers on Twitter at @CatchTheBaby.

Experience

1. Instructor

   Stanford d.school

   Nov 2013 — Present

   Fall 2013: Instructor at a pop-up class at the Stanford d.school called \"Redesigning the Hospital Birth Experience\". Worked with graduate students from four different schools within Stanford (engineering, education, business, medical school) to help redesign childbirth to help the new parents, baby, doctors and nurses. Performed mock simulations of a normal vaginal delivery, cesarean delivery and a vaginal delivery with neonatal code of the baby. Discussed in small groups of 3 students with 3 clinicians or 3 new parents regarding unmet needs exist in childbirth in the United States and abroad. Fall 2014, I helped with another simulation for the \"Redesigning the NICU\" class from the d.school as well.Winter 2016, I am an instructor for the \"Designing for Safety in Labor & Delivery\" d.school class where I discuss unmet needs in medicine in general and in Labor and Delivery and perform L&D simulations for Stanford students.Winter 2016 Instructor for \"Strategic Communication in the Operating Room\" d.school pop up class with the Department of Surgery at Stanford.Winter 2017 Instructor for \"Medical Device Design: Identifying Problems Through Observation & Hands-On Training\". Clinical teaching through medical simulation. Worked with students from many different departments at Stanford (MBA, Graduate Engineering, Medical School, Humanities, Aero Astro PhD Engineering, Humans In Space) within the design-thinking paradigm: empathize (through immersion), define (the needs or problems), ideate (brainstorm), prototype (iterative low resolution style) and test with users (repeat). Spring 2018: Design For Health Equity: Redesigning Healthcare Delivery

Education

• Stanford University School of Medicine

  M.D., Medical Doctor

  1989 — 1994

• Y Combinator

  StartUp School 2019 Certificate

  2019 — 2019

• University of California, Berkeley

  B.A., Physiology/Anatomy

  1984 — 1988

Skills

• Physicians
• Hospitals
• Ob/Gyn
• Medical Devices
• Clinical Research
• Social Media
• Gynecology
• Medical Writing
• Electronic Medical Record (Emr)
• Working with Physicians
• Wellness
• Surgery
• Obstetrics
• Women's Health
• Teaching
• Health Education
• Medicine
• Research
• Healthcare Innovation
• Healthcare
• Business Development
• Writing
• Fertility
• Health
• Editing
• Medical Education
• Pregnancy
• Emr
• Treatment
• Infertility
• Menopause