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Clinicians

Clinician involvement

Engineering Innovation in Health (EIH) promotes interdisciplinary collaborations between engineers and a wide range of clinicians with the goal of developing technical solutions to pressing challenges in health care.

We invite any health care professional to submit an unmet health challenge. Previous EIH projects have involved more than 100 clinicians, with diverse training and specialties, including medical doctors, surgeons, nurses, physical therapists, dentists, pharmacists, and pathologists.

Involvement

Submitting your unmet need

The EIH process starts with submitting an unmet health challenge and ultimately ends with a working prototype solution, which can take the form of a device, process, or application.

It takes only a few minutes to submit your initial unmet challenge via the Clinical Project Application. The applications asks you to describe the unmet health challenge, how the challenge is currently addressed, and your vision for how the project might move forward.

Selection process

In late summer (August/September), EIH invites a select group of submissions to give a reverse pitch, describing their unmet needs to our selection committee. The projects that the committee selects move forward in the first phase (October-December) that focuses on deep and holistic understanding of the unmet health challenge.

We often receive more than 50 submissions each year. Typically 10 to 15 projects are invited to participate in the autumn quarter class, and 6 to 8 projects move forward during winter and spring quarters for full development.

Time commitment

The submitting clinician (or team of clinicians) will form a team with engineering students and faculty. Autumn quarter requires roughly 1 to 3 hours per week of clinician time plus attendance at the Fall Showcase in December. If your project is selected for full development during winter and spring quarters (January–June) the time commitment will increase marginally.

There are no direct costs to the participating clinicians; however, we always welcome direct support to the program from individuals, departments, and industry.

 

Submit a health challenge

 

Benefits

Prototype solution and intellectual property

If your project is selected for full development, you will receive the solution to your health challenge in the form of a working prototype (device, process, app) in June. You and your team will submit the invention to CoMotion for further consideration for a U.S. patent application. A large percentage of EIH projects have pursued patent applications.

Preliminary data and comprehensive report

You will receive a comprehensive report that covers the background of the unmet need, the existing approaches and technologies that address the challenge, the regulatory pathway, preliminary market opportunity, and background intellectual property, as well as several solution designs and their preliminary data.

Future opportunities

The solution and report provides an abundance of opportunities to move the project forward:

  • Submit a patent for the innovation.
  • Use the report information and preliminary data gathered for subsequent publications and grant applications.
  • Evaluate the innovative solution in the clinic (with appropriate IRB and FDA considerations).
  • Begin the process of spinning out a start-up company.

Sample projects

For a full list of previous projects, visit the Projects section.

Intravenous Arm Trainer »

Over 200,000 IV catheters are placed daily in the United States; however, there is a 50% fail rate for correctly placing the catheter on the first needlestick. Healthcare students need to be able to train to place IVs, but existing arm trainers lack anatomical and physiological accuracy. As a consequence, students resort to practicing on other students or on patients, which poses an infection risk. This new arm trainer has a unique four-layer tissue and rolling vein behavior that provide the most realistic training experience possible for students.

IV arm trainer device

InsuCon »

Incorrect administration of insulin (e.g., too little, too much, or at wrong times) can result in transient and serious hypo- and hyperglycemia, wide glycemic excursions, and diabetic ketoacidosis. Special care must be taken to ensure that correct dose of insulin is administered. A report of cases in which providers asked patients to demonstrate his or her insulin injection technique identified serious flaws in insulin selfadministration. In one case, a patient was not properly using an insulin pen and so was unaware that she was not getting any insulin at all. In addition, the recommended practice of priming the pen before each injection to remove air from the needle reduces the insulin dose to be administered. There is a need to accurately confirm the dose of insulin injected, thus providing more reliable and accurate treatment.

Simpl-e-vac »

There is currently no FDA-cleared device that can treat Gastro-intestinal (GI) leaks, requiring clinicians to improvise a solution when performing endoscopic vacuum therapy near a tear in the GI tract. Simpl-e-VAC explored an integrated system that combines a nasogastric tube, guidewire, and self-expanding sponge. This approach allows for clinicians to immediately begin treatment instead of assembling a solution in the OR

Members of team Simpl-e-vac present their prototype at the annual EIH Spring Symposium.