A Clinical Immersion Program to Train Biomedical Engineers to Identify Indiana's Urban Health Needs

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PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The development of new medical devices and technologies requires a biomedical engineering (BME) workforce that is capable of identifying unmet clinical needs and working in teams to develop design solutions. BME curricula generally attempt to prepare students for such challenges through hands-on projects and team- based capstone courses, but such experiences often fall short at preparing students for needs identification and translation of design solutions. Clinical immersion provides a complementary experience to traditional curricular features, as students in such opportunities observe real-world application of medical devices and communicate with clinical personnel. Clinics in urban environments present a unique set of issues, including the challenge of delivering health care to populations that are socially and economically diverse. Our proposed INdiana Summer Clinical Residency in Innovation for Biomedical Engineers or (IN)SCRIBE Program will engage undergraduate BME students in a seven-week summer clinical immersion and design experience that challenges student teams to integrate socioeconomic considerations into clinically-relevant design. Both health care professionals and biomedical engineers will serve as faculty for the program. Indiana ranks 41st of the 50 states in overall resident health quality; chronic disease, obesity, smoking, and infant mortality rates plague our state. Socioeconomic disparities related to these health issues are of particular concern in cities like Indianapolis, as 39% of its population are people of color and 19% of its residents live in poverty. However, with the ample resources for medical innovation present in Indianapolis, our clinicians, researchers, and industry professionals can better engineer solutions that take socioeconomic disparities into account. Our proposed (IN)SCRIBE Program will train biomedical engineers to be adept at translating urban, healthcare-related technologies. The long-term objective of the proposed project is to develop a model program for urban universities to train biomedical engineers who will contribute to solutions to society's most challenging health care problems. Specific Aim 1 is to implement the (IN)SCRIBE Program at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), in collaboration with the IU School of Medicine. We will immerse undergraduate BME students in diverse clinical settings, develop student skills and self-efficacy in needs identification and clinically-relevant design, and create student awareness of socioeconomic disparities in healthcare. Specific Aim 2 is to determine how the (IN)SCRIBE Program affects undergraduate BME students. We will identify how student teams articulate consideration of socioeconomic factors in design solutions and document how student teams pursue design to meet urban health needs beyond the Program. Successful achievement of the long-term objective and specific aims will result in improved training for biomedical engineers and better health for all residents in both urban and non-urban areas.