Bridging Courses: Unmet Clinical Needs to Capstone Design (Work in Progress)

Abstract

IntroductionOften in the academic arena, biomedical engineering (BME) students identify unmet needs in a course and then do not have an avenue to pursue those ideas into a design-based course. Through funding from an NIH R25 Educational Grant the BME Department at the University of Delaware (UD) is building a bridge between two courses, Clinical Immersion for Engineers (BMEG350) and Senior Design (BMEG450), to translate umnet clinical needs into design projects. This paper discusses the two courses and how the unmet needs are bridged into Senior Design.

Perspectives on Bioengineering Clinical Immersion: History, Innovation, and Impact

“…Program assessments report participants' ability to understand the patenting, regulatory, and reimbursement processes, ability to identify unmet needs, evaluation of pre/post program career aspirations, engineering design selfefficacy, number of hours spent in the clinic, number of needs identified, number of resulting senior design projects, and understanding of entrepreneurial concepts. 15,[17][18][19]23,28,30,34,38,40 However, most of the outcomes rely on participants' self-reported feedback. While self-reports are valid as a general measure of achievement, self-perceptions of competence may be influenced by factors other than those which are being assessed.…”

“…Table 1 lists the clinical immersion programs funded through NIH/NIBIB R25 ''Team-Based Design in Biomedical Engineering Education''. 2,7,12,15,[17][18][19]23,31,32,34,40 Many of these programs have been informed by the Biodesign Program at Stanford University. 6 The Biodesign program consists of several components, including a 10-month Innovation Fellowship for participants who have relevant prior experience and/or advanced degrees in STEM, healthcare, business, law, or design, 33 and courses at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.…”

“…While a needs-based approach is common, content and implementation varies. 1,2,8,12,15,[17][18][19]21,23,28,30,34,38,40 Program content is scoped to leverage institutional strengths and emphasize selected areas of focus such as technology transfer, commercialization, FDA regulatory considerations, insurance reimbursements, or intellectual property. Further, some programs foster interdisciplinary teamwork among engineering disciplines (undergraduate and graduate), business, nursing, and medical students.…”

Clinical Immersion Program for Bioengineering and Medical Students

“…Closing the gap between the clinical environment and engineering design to ensure a user-centered focus in addressing the underlying problems that physicians, nurses and other stakeholders experience has been a greater priority in biomedical engineering education [5][6][7][8][9][10] in recent years. This paper is a continuation of the progress from the first three years of the Clinical Immersion Program beginning Summer 2014, including changes implemented in Summer 2016 as well as further modifications planned for the 2017 Program [1].…”

Diseases, Devices, and Patients: Exposing BME Students to the Patient Experience

“…In senior design-related experiences, students have a plethora of design-related and designinfluencing opportunities including clinical immersion to identify potential targets for senior capstone projects [1][2][3][4], working with external clinical mentors [5], learning and applying regulatory and intellectual property guidelines [6], conducting rapid design challenges [7,8], and many more [9]. Furthermore, the design experience may be patient-oriented with students interacting directly with patients [10].…”