Developing Innovative Interdisciplinary Biomedical Engineering Programs in Africa

广泛的跨学科培训方案，满足低收入和中等收入国家的关键需求 (LMIC)可以显著增加研究成果转化为实现的健康益处。 西北大学建议建立全面的生物医学工程培训项目， 包括确定关键的医疗保健需求、产品设计、交付、临床评估、可扩展性和 产品发布。我们计划的主题是开发有效、负担得起和易于使用的 创新的生物医学设备，可以促进诊断、治疗干预和疾病监测。 我们的建议建立在西北大学成功的全球卫生框架计划的基础上 (框架-1)，支持制定多学科全球卫生课程，并创建 范伯格医学院的全球健康中心，全球健康创新中心 麦考密克工程学院的技术和凯洛格商学院的全球卫生倡议 管理层。框架-1具体导致临床和基础研究的密切合作，包括 医学院、工程学和商学院，以及西北全球卫生组织的成立 基金会，一个独立的非营利性组织，支持大学后的商业发展 保健品。我们的LMIC合作伙伴包括南非开普敦大学、 尼日利亚的伊巴丹和拉各斯大学、马里的巴马科大学和#年的内罗毕大学 肯尼亚。这些LMIC机构与西北大学有许多现有的关系，包括活跃的教员 和学生交换计划，总统艾滋病紧急救援计划(PEPFAR)，医疗 教育伙伴关系倡议(MEPI)和艾滋病国际培训和研究方案(AITRP)， 还有其他的。这项提案的总体目标是提供工具，以发展急需的医疗保健 LMIC中的技术。该提案的具体目标是：1)建立新的和加强现有的 非洲生物医学工程培训计划；2)培训生物医学工程师和医生 医生如何评价新开发的检测和治疗产品；以及3)培训研究生 从商学院到LMIC扩大开发和推出新产品。医疗保健 将开发和采用的技术将包括任何改善健康结果的创新和 成本效益高，包括新的医疗点医疗诊断设备、治疗干预措施、信息 通过移动电话为远程医疗诊断提供便利。我们自下而上的方法和 对南南研究、培训和评估的重视使这一提议具有独特性和开创性。 这些努力的总体结果是发展跨机构、跨学科和创新的培训。 生物医学工程项目从需求评估和产品设计开始，继续 验证、知识产权保护、生产，最后到LMIC的营销和分销。

Broad interdisciplinary training programs which address critical needs in low and middle income countries (LMIC) can significantly increase the translation of research findings into realized health benefits. Northwestern University proposes to establish comprehensive training programs in biomedical engineering that includes identification of critical health care needs, product design, delivery, clinical evaluation, scalability and product launch. The theme of our program involves the development of effective, affordable, and easy to use innovative biomedical devices that can advance diagnostics, therapeutic interventions and disease monitoring. Our proposal builds on Northwestern's successful original Framework Programs for Global Health (Frameworks-1) which supported the development of a multidisciplinary global health curricula and creation of the Center for Global Health in the Feinberg School of Medicine, the Center for Innovation in Global Health Technologies in the McCormick School of Engineering and the Global Health Initiative at the Kellogg School of Management. Frameworks-1 specifically lead to the close collaboration of clinical and basic research involving medical, engineering and business schools as well as the establishment of the Northwestern Global Health Foundation, an independent not-for-profit which supports post-university commercial development of new healthcare products. Our LMIC partners include the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the University of Ibadan and Lagos University in Nigeria, the University of Bamako in Mali, and the University of Nairobi in Kenya. These LMIC institutions have many existing relationships with Northwestern including active faculty and student exchange programs, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI), and the AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP), among others. The overall goal of this proposal is to provide the tools to develop critically needed healthcare technologies in LMICs. The specific aims of the proposal are: 1) establish new and enhance existing training programs in biomedical engineering in Africa; 2) train biomedical engineers and medical doctors how to evaluate newly developed testing and treatment products; and 3) train post graduates from business schools to scale up development and launch new products in LMICs. The healthcare technologies to be developed and employed will include any innovation that improves health outcomes and is cost-effective including novel point-of-care medical diagnostic devices, therapeutic interventions, information systems, and telemedicine diagnostics facilitated through mobile phones. Our bottom-up approach and emphasis on South-South research training and assessment makes this proposal unique and ground-breaking. The overall result of these efforts is to develop trans-institutional, cross disciplinary and innovative training programs in biomedical engineering starting with needs assessment and product design, continuing to validation, intellectual property protection, production and finally to marketing and distribution in the LMICs.