Meet the 2024-2025 HMS HealthTech Fellows!

Ryan Brewster, MD
2024-25 HMS HealthTech Fellow
Ryan Brewster is a pediatrician, health services researcher, and clinical entrepreneur with interests in developing technologies to advance child health equity. Ryan is completing his pediatrics training at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine as part of the Leadership in Equity and Advocacy Track. He graduated summa cum laude from Middlebury College and earned his medical degree at Stanford University, where he was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honors Society. In medical school, he worked at the intersection of technology and health-related social needs through the Stanford Byers Center Byers Center for Biodesign Innovation Fellowship and Bay Area Schweitzer Fellowship. Ryan launched a telemedicine-based clinic for lead poisoning prevention in residency, along with founding a trainee-led clinical informatics incubator program. He also directs a national conference series focused on addressing structural racism called Health Equity Rounds. His ongoing innovation work seeks to operationalize acute hospital at home care for children. Outside of the United States, Ryan is passionate about expanding and building capacity for virtual models of pediatric care in low resource settings. He serves as a research and strategy consultant for multiple non-governmental organizations, including Global Strategies and Cloudphysician, and helped develop a novel low-cost bubble continuous positive airway pressure device. Ryan has an extensive academic record studying technology initiatives and pediatric health inequities, among other topics, that have led to over 50 peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. Additionally, he is a professional graphic designer, illustrator, and creative director with Little King Creative specializing in public health advocacy and scientific communication.

Kyle Murphy, MD
2024-25 HMS HealthTech Fellow
Kyle Murphy, MD is a general surgery resident and cofounder of AVA Surgical Technologies, a startup focusing on vascular access devices. Originally from Casper, Wyoming, Kyle has had a lifelong passion for design and innovation, first through sculpture and architecture as an undergraduate student at Notre Dame, before changing course to pre-medical studies with a minor in poverty studies. Kyle proceeded to the University of Kentucky College of Medicine where he graduated with honors in addition to taking extracurricular courses in medical innovation. He is currently finishing his general surgery residency at the University of Kentucky. He enjoys surgery, especially operations with minimally invasive techniques. Kyle is committed to balancing life as a surgeon and as an inventor. He has found success in both during residency. During his first year, he began developing prototypes with clay and glue, prior to buying and learning to use a 3D printer to improve his proofs of concepts. Kyle currently focuses his passion for design and innovation on vascular access devices through AVA Surgical Technologies. AVA is working to bring several of his inventions to market. During his time with AVA, Kyle has gained experience in prototyping, intellectual property, and fundraising. He is excited to join Harvard Healthtech and continue expanding his knowledge and experience.

Lois Onyeajam, MPH
2024-25 HMS HealthTech Fellow
Lois Onyeajam’s primary aim through her work is to improve the lives of older adults through innovative healthcare delivery to maximize their quality of life, while achieving the triple aim of better health, better care, at a lower price. She has over a decade of industry experience in the healthcare ecosystem, including working in public health implementation, payer operations, startup business development, and payer new business implementation. These experiences have equipped her with a strong understanding of the impact that payment models can have on access to, and delivery of, healthcare. She has strong skills in managing the full project life cycle, stakeholder cultivation and engagement, and sales enablement. She pairs this with a strong business acumen that has helped her build a company that in the last couple of years has helped hundreds of seniors find, evaluate, and decide on senior living options in the Charlotte Metropolitan area. Lois holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Michigan and a Master of Public Health from the University of South Carolina. Prior to becoming a Blavatnik Innovation Fellow, she served as a program manager within the SWAT team of Humana’s Corporate Medicaid Implementation Team, managing aspects of new market implementation that have large scale impacts across functional areas.

Deborah Weidman, B.S. in Biomedical Engineering
2024-25 HMS HealthTech Fellow
Deborah Weidman works collaboratively to develop patient-focused solutions for unmet clinical needs. She is the co-founder of two Baltimore-based medical device start-ups, CraniUS and PneuTech. As CEO of PneuTech, Deborah built and led its team to design a device that improves safety and navigation of the current commercial biopsy system, in order to reduce the rate of lung collapse during lung biopsies. Prior to PneuTech, Deborah co-founded CraniUS with the mission to extend the lives of patients with brain cancer by developing the first implantable device to enable long-term medicine delivery directly across the blood-brain barrier. As CTO of CraniUS, she hired and led a diverse and interdisciplinary R&D team of mechanical, hardware, and software engineers, supported key milestones that enabled a $19.4M Series A raise, designed and executed four animal studies, and created the product vision for the company’s future first-in-human study. Prior to CraniUS and PneuTech, Deborah was a Johns Hopkins Presidential Management Fellow, where she developed an analytic method to guide the university Investment Office’s new investments in the healthcare sector. Deborah was a Bloomberg Scholar at Johns Hopkins University and graduated with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering with honors. While at Johns Hopkins, Deborah helped start the Center for Neuroplastic Surgery Research, where she was the lab manager for two years. Outside of healthcare innovation, Deborah enjoys playing the flute, volunteering for the Johns Hopkins alumni committee, and traveling with her family and friends. She looks forward to creating safer, more effective, and more equitable healthcare innovations.