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Industry involvement

Engineering Innovation in Health (EIH) develops technical solutions to pressing challenges in health. We welcome projects from your company that will benefit from a collaborative working team of industry professionals, UW students, and faculty.

Benefits

By participating in EIH, you have the opportunity to:

  • Develop innovative technical solutions that bring value to your company.
  • Vet a solution to a challenging problem, perhaps one that you don’t have the resources to pursue in-house.
  • Generate a deeper understanding of a health challenge, market, current solutions, intellectual property, and regulatory strategy that engages a comprehensive set of stakeholders.
  • Work closely with a diverse group of UW students and faculty from engineering, health sciences, and business.
  • Strengthen your relationship with the UW for recruiting student talent and for engaging in future projects.
  • Leverage world class infrastructure and facilities at UW.
  • Receive a nonexclusive commercial license to any project intellectual property developed by the student team or UW employees.

Involvement

The Engineering Innovation in Health program runs for 9 months. Projects typically start in the fall (October) and run for three quarters (ending in June).

Participating companies pay a sponsorship fee and designate an employee lead to mentor the team. The mentor meets with the team weekly to help them understand the problem in depth and guide the solution pathway.

Intellectual property is governed by existing federal and state laws and is subject to best practices of the University of Washington technology transfer office, CoMotion. A company wholly owns its existing intellectual property. A nonexclusive, commercial license will be granted to any project intellectual property developed by the student team or UW employees. Additional, pre-negotiated options for exclusive licenses have been standardized as part of the Washington Innovation Advantage Program.

The EIH process starts with industry sponsors or clinicians submitting a project idea that focuses on an unmet health challenge and ultimately ends with a working prototype solution, which can take the form of a device, process, or application. Project submissions are due on a rolling basis between May and August each year. We welcome you to reach out to us and discuss your ideas. Please contact EIHealth@uw.edu to learn more.

 

Submit a health challenge

 

Sample projects

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

Safe&Sound »

Occupational hearing damages across the United States is still one of the largest occupational illnesses. Despite the advancements in hearing protection technologies such as materials and designs, the rate of people who suffer hearing losses has not decreased over the years. This is partially due to a lack of the awareness of hazardous noise exposure. Thus a solution that provides noise level awareness would help those at risk of hearing damage properly protect themselves. For example, people who work at nuclear power plants carry radiation meter to warn of the dangerous radiation exposure or houses are required to have carbon monoxide detectors to inform people of the danger of intoxication. These harmful elements are difficult to see, thus, difficult for people to protect themselves. Safe&Sound's solution is to reduce occupational hearing loss by making the invisible noise visible like radiation meter and carbon monoxide detector. Their solution consists of an integrated microphone design with the capability to detect various hazards.

Aeroception »

With the COVID-19 pandemic, new challenges in dealing with airborne pathogens have been brought to light across many fields, most notably in dentistry. During dental procedures, the use of the necessary surgical instruments contributes to the production of bioaerosols putting medical staff and other patients at risk of infection. It is important to point out that many opportunistic respiratory infections are traced back to oral microbiota, further highlighting the importance of prevention. While current transmission-based precautions may help limit the spread, they do not prevent the spread altogether. Aeroception is working on a device to improve air quality around the patient’s oral cavity and the dental practitioners by reducing the number of contaminated aerosols and removing it out of clinical space, to better protect dental staff and patients in dental offices.  Their solution is a suction device that directs 99% of aerosols produced during dental visits away from the practitioners and removes it from the clinical space completely.

 

Under Pressure »

There are over 31,000 anesthesiologists currently in the United States facing the mental burden of administering medication, monitoring patient vitals, and making sure surgeries are performed safely and comfortably. In 2018, about 12% of the total surgeries completed at UW Medical Center used an arterial line, which is a highly invasive device can result in complications ranging from arterial occlusion, arterial thrombosis, compartment syndrome, infection, nerve injury and even skin necrosis if not recognized and treated early. Other less invasive devices exist, including the automatic pressure cuff which is an inflatable device normally applied on the brachial artery, but its inaccurate measurement, limited placement options (generally only arm), and non-continuous monitoring are significant disadvantages. Our group, Under Pressure, proposes using an adhesive device placed on the carotid artery that incorporates a photoplethysmography (PPG) light absorption sensor, an electrocardiography (ECG) electrical signal sensor, and a conformational ultrasound (US) patch to generate a measurement of blood pressure. The blood pressure cuff method is too archaic and the arterial line can lead to patient injury – the continuous and noninvasive nature of the Under Pressure patch has the potential to revolutionize blood pressure monitoring in the operating room.