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Industry

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.

Heart Anchors »

Patients with heart disease who are unable to undergo open-heart surgery can instead be treated with a minimally invasive, catheter-based surgery. In this surgery, a clip device is maneuvered via a catheter into the compromised heart valve, but it is difficult to maneuver the clip within the dynamic environment of the heart. Heart Anchors are an inflatable balloon stability system that guides clip equipment and makes it easier to place the clip within the valve.

Heart anchor rendering

SmarTrach »

The SmarTrach team sought to improve the lives of the 4,500 children who are treated with tracheostomies. These treatments have a mortality rate of 7.3%, primarily due to the blockage of the airway due to mucus. SmarTrach proposes a device that can detect the changes in flow rate that indicates a partial or full blockage of a tracheostomy device

The SmartTrach prototype shown at the EIH spring Symposium.

COYou »

Carbon dioxide (CO2) created by the body is a marker of ventilation, tissue perfusion, and metabolism. In critically ill patients, changes in the ventilatory and circulatory status of the patient will affect exhaled CO2 levels sooner than changes in the oxygen saturation that is routinely measured. Capnographs are devices that use CO2 from a patient’s expired breath to monitor the cardiopulmonary status during critical procedures, airway management, cardiac arrest care, and mechanical ventilation. These waveforms immediately sense changes in CO2 levels that may signal respiratory distress or cardiopulmonary collapse. Monitoring end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2) has become the standard in ALS care and is recommended by both the American Heart Association and European Resuscitation Council in the 2010 and 2015 Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care science.