Arizona Technology Development and Clinical Education Program for Students in Kidney Health (ADVANCE Kidney Health)

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PROJECT SUMMARY To expand the kidney-related biomedical workforce and counter the increasing disparity between the growing prevalence of renal disease and the disproportionate level of trainees, researchers and practitioners in nephrology and kidney health, we developed the Arizona Technology Development and Clinical Education Program for Students in Kidney Health (ADVANCE Kidney Health). ADVANCE Kidney Health is an education- based, hands-on research, education and clinical experience that applies pillars of 1) science, medical and engineering education; 2) training in innovation, entrepreneurialism and scientific translation; 3) experiential learning, mentorship and clinical immersion; and 4) needs-based application and practical translation – all aimed at producing motivated, trained and committed biomedical trainees interested in renal health and science to advance the workforce and develop the new health-related therapies of the future. The program recruits undergraduate students from across 15 departments within the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona (UArizona) that include: Biomedical Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Chemical Engineering. ADVANCE Kidney Health is structured to provide trainees a medical school experience for early-stage undergraduate learners geared to instill an understanding of renal anatomy and kidney function. The core structure accesses a clinical experience to instill a motivation to pursue kidney- related patient care and/or translational research and progresses to an already established innovation bootcamp that culminates in an interdisciplinary capstone that has doubled in size over 10 years and accesses by more than 450 captive engineering students. The program leverages new infrastructure in medical and engineering education along with transdisciplinary programs aimed at innovation, technology development and entrepreneurialism with 15 physician navigators in kidney health and 23 engineering and scientific mentors spanning renal physiology, biomedical engineering, optical sciences and machine learning. The result is an interrelated program that bridges renal medicine, engineering and product development to develop new pipelines and on-ramps to impact career decisions and grow the future kidney-related workforce.