Designing an interprofessional educational undergraduate clinical experience

Abstract

Ongoing assessment of the biomedical engineering concentration in the Department of Engineering at East Carolina University, suggested that undergraduate students had difficulty adequately translating technical course content to real world biomedical engineering problems. East Carolina University is home to the Department of Engineering, Brody School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, College of Nursing, College of Allied Health Sciences, and is affiliated with a large regional medical center. Taking advantage of these resources, the goal of this project was to develop a multidisciplinary, collaborative educational experience, in a clinical environment, to improve student learning. Our objectives were to provide undergraduate engineering students with an understanding and appreciation of the needs and uses of technology in healthcare and to foster innovation in medical technology. The "Special Topics in Engineering Biomedical Innovation" course serves as an engineering technical elective, targeted to junior and senior undergraduates. The course was first offered in spring 2016 and includes a didactic component, observation component and team based project. Students receive instruction in observation techniques, clinical environments, professional behavior, entrepreneurship, technology transfer, and intellectual property. Clinic rotations focus on identifying unmet clinical needs with projects aimed at developing and designing a solution. In 2017, a new collaboration with the College of Business Miller School of Entrepreneurship was initiated. At the end of the term, the combined engineering and business teams pitch their ideas to a group of investors and clinic sponsors. Evaluation of the course is based on assessment of student surveys, project reports, presentations and clinic sponsor feedback. A total of 14 students have participated in the course. Student surveys were overwhelmingly positive, identifying course strengths in critical and innovative thinking, development of observation skills, applied engineering, and clinical exposure. Suggested course improvements include more scheduled project work time, access to engineering fabrication lab, and better coordination with the business students. Clinic sponsors rated the students good to excellent for professionalism, timeliness, respect for patients, asking questions, respect for clinic staff and preparedness. In summary, a new course, using a multidisciplinary team approach was developed that provided students with clinical experiences and the opportunities to identify and solve real world problems. New collaborations with the Health Sciences Campus and College of Business were established and will continue to be developed. Benefits of this course are the generation of novel, multidisciplinary capstone project ideas and new collaborative opportunities. Overall this course illustrates the importance of providing undergraduate students open-ended, loosely defined projects, and allowing project teams to assume responsibility for design and innovation.