Highlights
- •Biomedical engineering (BME) is integral to the advancement of the medical field and surgical training.
- •There are very few BME-centered graduate medical courses, and fewer still in undergraduate medical curricula.
- •The fundamentals of BME can be successfully integrated into a medical undergraduate curriculum.
- •A BME course can be completed within one standard semester with minimal intrusion into medical students' clinical rotations.
- •Early exposure to BME may streamline medical advancement by encouraging early multidisciplinary competence among surgeons.
Abstract
Background
The modern surgeon faces an ever-changing landscape of procedural innovation. The
demands of present-day healthcare highlight the importance of successfully developing
new medical devices and technologies. This effort requires multidisciplinary collaborations
of professionals ranging from manufacturers and engineers to researchers and healthcare
providers. Surgeons regularly interact with complex equipment and user interfaces
without substantial formal education on their design and development. The objective
of this study was to ascertain the impact of a 10-week BME course into a medical school
curriculum on surgery-bound students’ knowledge of product design and gauge their
ability to develop an actual product to meet a real need in a surgical field.
Methods
A Medical Device Design and Commercialization co-enrolled elective course was offered
to medical students at a single institution. Five students with an expressed surgical
and procedural interest were enrolled. At the beginning of the course, they were tasked
with developing a product to meet a clinical need they observed. At the conclusion
of the course, students filled out a questionnaire about their level of comfort and
knowledge of the material using a 5-point Likert scale. This survey was administered
to a control group of medical students who did not take the course.
Results
The BME student cohort was able to successfully identify a post-operative need, develop
a prototype of a novel device, and present their product to attending surgeons. A
total of 35 survey entries were received: five from the experimental group and 30
from the comparison group. The experimental group scored higher than the comparison
group for all survey questions and reached the level of statistical significance in
13 of the 15 questions (p < 0.05). Survey respondents reported similar degrees of
knowledge and comfort in recognizing unmet needs in a hospital setting and formulating
a comprehensive statement describing them.
Conclusion
The principles of biomedical engineering are integral to advancing the field of surgery.
Presently, a small cohort of medical students/residents successfully acquired and
applied basic BME concepts in a relatively short period of time relative to other
training paradigms. Our findings also suggest medical students recognize unmet needs
in the hospital setting, and those who completed a BME course felt more able to take
steps to meet those needs. Early integration of biomedical engineering principles
in medical training may help produce more innovative and well-rounded surgeons.
Graphical abstract
Graphical Abstract
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 25, 2022
Accepted:
November 16,
2022
Received in revised form:
October 27,
2022
Received:
June 8,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
