lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world. Why? Because it's difficult

to detect in its early stages and hard to treat once it's discovered. The lung cancer

initiative at Johnson & Johnson is working to reverse that trend. And to do so, it needs

not just doctors and researchers, but engineers. Hannah McEwen is the head of engineering sciences

for the group. She recently sat down with Scientific American Custom Media to explain

the role engineering can play in transforming lung cancer diagnosis and treatment. When

one hears about the field of engineering, it's not always associated with medicine. When

Hannah McEwen started her engineering career, she did so thinking about possibilities to

apply the principles and problem solving techniques of engineering to biology and medicine to

ultimately improve health care.

If I go back to my early days, even back at my university, my undergrad, I really began

to fall in love with this idea that engineering can really be used to transform a patient's

health.

That love blossomed at her first internship, working on electronic devices to provide a sense

of sound to people who are profoundly deaf or hard of hearing. She says those cochlear

implants were striking example of how engineering can improve the quality of life.

We apply physics and mechanics and electrical engineering and it can transform someone's

life. From one day being able to hear nothing, to then being able to hear voices and people

and sounds and really have an at-transformation impact.

Hannah eventually joined Johnson & Johnson, where she spent more than a decade developing

orthopedic implants designed to help people walk and move again. Over time, she's

started collaborating with colleagues across the company, a new and aspirational projects.

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