Simon BrombergMobile Developer - Biomedical Engineer - Technical Lead
About
I have worked full time as a mobile software developer since 2015. I have advanced proficiency in iOS, Swift, and SwiftUI. I have some experience with React Native, Android/Kotlin, and other platforms.
I have been working as a Senior Software Engineer at AssistIQ since October 2023.
I have a Master’s in Clinical Engineering from U of T. My thesis was on the clinical use of wearable fitness trackers for remotely monitoring heart failure patients.
I have worked at several different startups ranging from early-stage to more mature in a variety of industries including healthcare, fitness, and finance.
Experience
Contact
me ⚛ sbromberg📍com
Vi - LifeBEAM
Vi Fitness was a mobile app that delivered an immersive AI personalized fitness coaching experience via wireless biosensing earphones designed and manufactured by LifeBEAM (now Vi Labs). As a mobile engineer I meticulously crafted the UI and UX for Vi while collaborating with designers, product owners, and engineering teammates. Vi raised almost $1.7 million on Kickstarter in 2016.
Nowadays they are building Enterprise-AI for digital health.
Date:
November 2016 – August 2017
Role:
Mobile engineer
Company Size:
50–100
Encore
Encore was a free iOS concert app that collected photos and videos taken by the crowd at concerts from social media sites. Users could view these collections for concerts they had been to or they were interested in, and also search for and buy tickets for upcoming shows, as well as preview and buy music. Our team was part of the 2013 cohort of The Next 36. The app and website is no longer maintained, but check out this demo video plus our promotional video (produced by Wyatt Clough).
Date:
2013 – 2015
Role:
Co-founder and iOS lead
Sensimat
Sensimat is a Bluetooth wheelchair mat that connects to an iOS device to track pressure reliefs performed by a wheelchair user with the goal being to improve adherence. Pressure reliefs help prevent the development of pressure ulcers, which can result in hospitalization or may even be fatal if left unchecked. The team ran a successful Indiegogo campaign in 2014.
Date:
2013 – 2015
Role:
Development (primarily iOS)
CIWA Tremor
Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) must be treated properly or it may result in permanent brain damage or death. At the same time, it is fairly common for alcoholics to try to get treatment drugs by faking the symptoms of withdrawal. AWS is characterized by a number of symptoms including hand tremor. Using the motion sensors in the iPhone I developed an application with Dr. Bjug Borgundvaag (Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, pictured above) based off of a paper clinical withdrawal assessment tool called the CIWA to quantitatively assess tremor rather than rely on a subjective visual assessment. The ongoing project went on to receive governement funding and further academic support for additional research and analysis.
Smart Vision Labs is a New York-based healthcare startup developing an objective vision exam using a custom hardware device with an embedded iPhone.
As the iOS engineer I was responsible for implementing the UI, image processing, and background data synchronization. I collaborated closely with designers, scientists, and other members of the software team.
Using machine learning and large data sets we developed interesting algorithms for improving the performance of the device (which computes refractive error from image data captured on the phone) as well as other complex algorithms for auto-capturing images, and identifying and measuring facial features.
My thesis was on the feasibility of using consumer wristband activity monitors as a tool for the remote monitoring of heart failure patients. I designed and executed a clinical study at the cardiac clinic at Toronto General Hospital with the support of Dr. Heather Ross.
The study involved giving each participant a Fitbit activity tracker for two weeks, and then analyzing the step data as well as assessing the practicality of using these low-cost devices in a clinical context without giving patients specific tests to conduct while wearing them. I found that the step rate data did correlate with clinical measures of exercise capacity and that the devices showed some potential for use in a clinical setting. A paper was published in JMIR Cardio in May 2019.
Tools:
R, Matlab, Excel, Swift, JavaScript
Date:
September 2013 – September 2015
AssistIQ is a operating room inventory tool that is reducing the enormous waste and costs in hospitals by helping them keep track of what’s actually been used during an operation. The iOS app for iPads incorporates native Swift for computer vision and React Native for UI. Currently healthcare workers in an OR simply hold packages up to an iPad and it automatically detects using computer vision algorithms what the package is and keeps track of it. The data from AssistIQ is then used to make informed decisions at the hospital about expenditures and inventory management.
In addition to development work on the app, I have built an automated build workflow using GitHub Actions, Fastlane, and Microsoft App Center / CodePush.
Tools:
Swift, React Native, GitHub, Fastlane, GitHub Actions, Microsoft App Center, CodePush, computer vision
Date:
Octover 2023 – present
Delphia
Delphia is a consumer investment platform aiming to leverage user data in a consensual way to help them produce better investment outcomes. The native Swift/SwiftUI iOS app included an extensive onboarding with KYC questions and portfolio selection, connecting bank accounts via Plaid, adding/withdrawing funds, visualizing investment returns, data source connections, and formerly an elaborate weekly sweepstakes feature.
I joined as the second iOS developer and we transformed the app from a rough prototype into a robust production app. Aside from the UI and business logic I have also worked heavily on improving our test coverage, CI, and automatic releases through Fastlane (Ruby) and GitHub Actions (YAML). I dabbled a bit in Android/Kotlin development as well. I also conducted technical interviews for candidates.
In early 2022 I took over as lead iOS developer, helping to coordinate iOS work across teams and manage progress on technical debt, migrations to new technologies like SwiftUI and Swift Concurrency, improving architecture and more.
In May 2023 I moved to a team building an interactive news app with React Native called Backchannel.
In August 2023 I was laid off as Delphia let go of a significant portion of its workforce.
Swift Medical is a wound care platform for medical professionals to track and assess serious, often life-threatening wounds (e.g. pressure sores, diabetic ulcers, amputations, etc) in a medical context. The iOS app leverages complex computer vision algorithms to automatically estimate wound area as well as depth, colour, and other attributes all on a mobile device.
CoHealth (formerly Dash Digital Healthcare / DashMD) was a information and task management app for patients to use after being discharged from medical care as a simple reference tool and to stay on top of medications and other requirements for their care. As technical lead I overhauled the iOS app while also managing the development of the Android app and Django backend, as well as managing hiring for those platforms. I also collaborated directly with the company leadership and designers to direct the product and feature development.