John Laughlin, M. ENG., P.E.

Mr. Laughlin has spent 17 years working in the field of biomechanical engineering. He has applied engineering principles in the areas of accident reconstruction, injury potential/causation analyses, human factors analyses, failure analysis and medical device engineering. As a forensic engineer, Mr. Laughlin has reconstructed accidents involving automobiles, motorcycles, pedestrians, amusement park rides, walking surfaces, public transportation, and railroad/industrial equipment. He has analyzed failures in products liability cases and determined the relationship of the defect with the injuries. Mr. Laughlin has performed analyses to determine damage consistency between vehicles, the order of impacts in multi-vehicle collisions and to determine the driver of vehicles involved in roll-over collisions, as well as other accident reconstruction related analyses. As a biomechanical engineer, he is qualified to use injury based evidence from medical records, photographs and autopsy reports to create a complete and quality analysis. Mr. Laughlin is a seasoned professional and has testified over 100 times and has been a guest expert on the Dr. Phil show.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Laughlin has worked in the area of orthopedic biomechanics, developing equipment related to the testing of implantable orthopedic medical devices, studying human kinematics, and testing the material properties of human tissue. Mr. Laughlin understands occupant dynamics/kinematics and can reconstruct an occupant’s motions during an accident. He is familiar with head injury causation, spinal biomechanics and the biomechanical properties of human tissue including muscle and bone. He understands environmental factors that may contribute to an incident including human factors

Mr. Laughlin is also an accomplished medical device engineer and has experience in the field of neuroelectrical engineering. As a clinical engineer, Mr. Laughlin worked in the field to advance the science of neuromodulation, or the application of electricity to a group of nerve fibers to reach a therapeutic result. Mr. Laughlin comprehends neuroscience principles and the generation/cessation of action potentials with the aid of an applied electrical signal. He has worked closely with research and development departments to advance the design of tools and implantable devices used in the operating room and clinic. He has contributed to the content and design of study protocols used in clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of medical devices. He has trained surgeon investigators as well as clinical sales teams on the implantation of these devices. Mr. Laughlin is familiar with Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) and Pre-Market Approval (PMA) processes.

Currently, Mr. Laughlin spends most of his professional time reconstructing accidents and performing biomechanical analyses. He is a reviewer for an independent institutional review board. He specializes in evaluating medical device study protocols for their scientific merit and safety prior to being performed on human subjects. With the growing emphasis being placed on human factors, Mr. Laughlin also spends time helping companies design usability studies and designing usability into studies for medical device manufacturers seeking FDA approval.