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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.

PeePal »

Catheterized individuals are at risk for hematuria, the presence of blood in urine; however, there is no consistent way to measure or communicate the severity of hematuria. PeePal is a small device that clips onto a catheter outflow tube and displays the blood volume fraction in the urine, using spectroscopy to measure specific wavelengths and provide blood absorbance information.

PeePal rendering

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.

ProtectIV »

IV’s are a popular access device to provide the medicines and nutritional support for premature infants. IV infiltration is the penetration of IV fluids or medicines into the surrounding tissue from a punctured vein or dislodged catheter. This penetration of fluids can cause severe and irreversible damage especially when undetected and untreated. Almost 90% of IVs fail and up to 78% of these failures in a single NICU can be due to IV infiltration. Neonates in lower to middle income countries are at a higher risk of infiltrations due to a lack of resources necessary to observe and monitor IV sites. Therefore, there is a need for an affordable and accessible detection method for IV infiltration. ProtectIV’s solution is an adhesive patch with two mechanisms that instantaneously monitor for the symptoms of IV infiltration. When infiltration is detected the patch gives a visual color indication to alert an observer that an infiltration has occurred.

IV inserted with a ProtectIV patch over the insertion site