Work-In-Progress: Clinical Immersion and Team-Based Engineering Design

Abstract

Abstract Work-In-Progress: Clinical Immersion and Team-Based Engineering DesignThe cost of medical care in the U.S. is staggering. The Congressional Budget Office has statedthat total spending was 16% of gross domestic product in 2007, and projects that withoutchanges in federal law it could be 25% in 2025 and 37% in 2050. One way to hold down costsand maintain or enhance patient care is the development of more cost effective, safer medicaldevices. To meet this need, we must also increase the number and the quality of bioengineerstrained to identify and solve healthcare problems.Design experiences are core to bioengineering education and experiential learning strategiesresult in deeper understanding. Through real-world design experiences, students developexpertise and their ability to use design understanding to develop solutions to engineering designproblems. These as well as practical aspects of eventual commercialization of technology are anecessary part of student training to meet health, medical device, and patient needs as well ascontrol costs.A team of engineering and medical faculty developed a program to improve team-based designeducation for undergraduate student Scholars with new projects drawn from unmet clinical needsand a new immersive summer training program using clinical mentorship at a partneringhospital. In the first part of the experience, Scholars follow a three-step process: 1) observeclinical processes, 2) identify problems associated with that process, and 3) formulate a needstatement. Additionally, we developed didactic and active learning activities based on theBiodesign process.During the academic year, students in teams, further develop the projects that were identified andwritten in their needs statements. The projects are the basis of the team-based design projects aspart of the capstone course experience. Surveys were conducted and analyzed to determine theeffect of the design projects on students’ self-confidence and attitudes about bioengineeringdesign experiences. The faculty team will use an approach to study the use of language by theengineering designers through student design reports to assess design thinking and learning.We expect to improve student learning, design solutions, develop projects into products, andoffer an example of a model partnership between a university and a clinical collaborator. Overtime, assessment of this program and student outcomes will add to the scientific knowledge baseon the impact, benefits and improved student learning derived from team-based design increating novel healthcare solutions.