Summary
In the bioengineering, there is a growing emphasis on the importance of healthcare-related
problem identification, ideation, creativity, critical thinking, team-based collaboration, and medical
device commercialization. Yet, no systematic education mechanisms are integrated into the
bioengineering curriculum to allow biomedical engineering students to identify healthcare-related
problems, envision solutions within the constraints imposed by the clinical environment, work in
an interdisciplinary inclusive team-based environment, and learn medical device
commercialization process. To this end, our overarching objective is to prepare competent
biomedical engineers through the creation of holistic medical need-driven design and device
commercialization pipelines that expand from the freshman through super-senior years. The
holistic medical need-driven design process pipeline consists of 10-week clinical immersion
experience (CIE) following by 5-week clinical ideation for design program and innovative design-
oriented courses. Our ongoing collaboration with the University of Toledo Medical Center and
ProMedica will help to implement CIE seamlessly. The aim in creating a need-driven design
process pipeline is to teach crucial design components including healthcare-related problem
identification, ideation, design iteration, design constraints identification, and team-based
collaboration. The medical device commercialization pipeline consists of intellectual property
(protection), patent application, regulatory pathways, market analysis. The proposed research
education program will provide an opportunity for almost 1000 students over a five-year period to
engage with clinical faculty and industry mentors starting from the freshman through super-senior
years. While clinical faculty will help them to identify the clinical needs and possible clinical
constraints to be considered in medical device design, the industry mentors will provide
perspective and constraints for the production and commercialization of the designed product.
Our ongoing relations with industry mentors due to mandatory co-op program will provide
sustainable support from the biomedical device industry for the proposed activities.
