TY - JOUR
T1 - Surgineering
T2 - curriculum concept for experiential learning in upper-level biomedical engineering
AU - Siewerdsen, J. H.
AU - Adrales, G. L.
AU - Anderson, W. S.
AU - Carey, J. P.
AU - Creighton, F. X.
AU - DiBrito, S. R.
AU - Galaiya, D.
AU - Marohn, M. R.
AU - McNutt, T. R.
AU - Osgood, G. M.
AU - Theodore, N.
AU - Weiss, C. R.
AU - Viswanathan, A. N.
N1 - Funding Information:
The time and expertise of clinical faculty contributing to this course are gratefully acknowledged, including the coauthors and the following faculty and staff at our institution making valuable contributions to the course: Mr. Ivan George; Mr. Nick Loloudis; Ms. Sue Eller; Dr. Anand Malpani; Dr. Stephen Yang; Dr. Cecelia Lui; Dr. Dan Choi; Dr. Rebecca Stone; Dr. Timothy Witham; Dr. Ferdinand Hui; Dr. Jan Fritz; and Dr. John Wong. Faculty contributing to the subsequent course (580.750, not detailed in the current paper) include Mr. R. Day, Dr. R. Winslow, and Dr. S. Levin (Johns Hopkins University) as well as Dr. P. Trbovich (University of Toronto). Valuable contributions of time and material from several vendors enabled many of the hands-on activities, including: Medtronic, Stryker, Zimmer, and Med-El. Thanks also to Runze Han and Sarah Capostagno (Biomedical Engineering) for assistance with the course, including drafting of Anatomy Notes and to Dr. Tharindu DeSilva and Dr. Ali Uneri (Biomedical Engineering) for assistance with the navigation systems in Project #2. The first author expresses deep appreciation to Dr. Eileen Haase (Biomedical Engineering) for helpful conversations and feedback on this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, CARS.
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - Purpose: A strong foundation in the fundamental principles of medical intervention combined with genuine exposure to real clinical systems and procedures will improve engineering students’ capability for informed innovation on clinical problems. To help build such a foundation, a new course (dubbed Surgineering) was developed to convey fundamental principles of surgery, interventional radiology (IR), and radiation therapy, with an emphasis on experiential learning, hands-on with real clinical systems, exposure to clinicians, and visits to real operating theaters. The concept, structure, and outcomes of the course of the first run of the first semester of the course are described. Method: The course included six segments spanning fundamental concepts and cutting-edge approaches in a spectrum of surgical specialties, body and neurological IR, and radiation therapy. Each class involved a minimum of didactic content and an emphasis on hands-on experience with instrumentation, equipment, surgical approaches, anatomical models, dissection, and visits to clinical theaters. Outcomes on the quality of the course and areas for continuing improvement were assessed by student surveys (5-point Likert scores and word-cloud representations of free response) as well as feedback from clinical collaborators. Result: Surveys assessed four key areas of feedback on the course and were analyzed quantitatively and in word-cloud representations of: (1) best aspects (hands-on experience with surgeons); (2) worst aspects (quizzes and reading materials); (3) areas for improvement (projects, quizzes, and background on anatomy); and (4) what prospective students should know (a lot background reading for every class). Five-point Likert scores from survey respondents (16/19 students) indicated: overall quality of the course 4.63 ± 0.72 (median 5.00); instructor teaching effectiveness 4.06 ± 1.06 (median 4.00); intellectual challenge 4.19 ± 0.40 (median 4.00); and workload somewhat heavier (62.5%) compared to other courses. Novel elements of the course included the opportunity to engage with clinical faculty and participate in realistic laboratory exercises, work with clinical instruments and equipment, and visit real operating theaters. An additional measure of the success of the course was evidenced by surveys and a strong escalation in enrollment in the following year. Conclusions: The Surgineering course presents an important addition to upper-level engineering curricula and a valuable opportunity for engineering students to gain hands-on experience and interaction with clinical experts. Close partnership with clinical faculty was essential to the schedule and logistics of the course as well as to the continuity of concepts delivered over the semester. The knowledge and experience gained provides stronger foundation for identification of un-met clinical needs and ideation of new engineering approaches in medicine. The course also provides a valuable prerequisite to higher-level coursework in systems engineering, human factors, and data science applied to medicine.
AB - Purpose: A strong foundation in the fundamental principles of medical intervention combined with genuine exposure to real clinical systems and procedures will improve engineering students’ capability for informed innovation on clinical problems. To help build such a foundation, a new course (dubbed Surgineering) was developed to convey fundamental principles of surgery, interventional radiology (IR), and radiation therapy, with an emphasis on experiential learning, hands-on with real clinical systems, exposure to clinicians, and visits to real operating theaters. The concept, structure, and outcomes of the course of the first run of the first semester of the course are described. Method: The course included six segments spanning fundamental concepts and cutting-edge approaches in a spectrum of surgical specialties, body and neurological IR, and radiation therapy. Each class involved a minimum of didactic content and an emphasis on hands-on experience with instrumentation, equipment, surgical approaches, anatomical models, dissection, and visits to clinical theaters. Outcomes on the quality of the course and areas for continuing improvement were assessed by student surveys (5-point Likert scores and word-cloud representations of free response) as well as feedback from clinical collaborators. Result: Surveys assessed four key areas of feedback on the course and were analyzed quantitatively and in word-cloud representations of: (1) best aspects (hands-on experience with surgeons); (2) worst aspects (quizzes and reading materials); (3) areas for improvement (projects, quizzes, and background on anatomy); and (4) what prospective students should know (a lot background reading for every class). Five-point Likert scores from survey respondents (16/19 students) indicated: overall quality of the course 4.63 ± 0.72 (median 5.00); instructor teaching effectiveness 4.06 ± 1.06 (median 4.00); intellectual challenge 4.19 ± 0.40 (median 4.00); and workload somewhat heavier (62.5%) compared to other courses. Novel elements of the course included the opportunity to engage with clinical faculty and participate in realistic laboratory exercises, work with clinical instruments and equipment, and visit real operating theaters. An additional measure of the success of the course was evidenced by surveys and a strong escalation in enrollment in the following year. Conclusions: The Surgineering course presents an important addition to upper-level engineering curricula and a valuable opportunity for engineering students to gain hands-on experience and interaction with clinical experts. Close partnership with clinical faculty was essential to the schedule and logistics of the course as well as to the continuity of concepts delivered over the semester. The knowledge and experience gained provides stronger foundation for identification of un-met clinical needs and ideation of new engineering approaches in medicine. The course also provides a valuable prerequisite to higher-level coursework in systems engineering, human factors, and data science applied to medicine.
KW - Biomedical engineering
KW - Curriculum
KW - Interventional radiology
KW - Radiation therapy
KW - Surgery
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U2 - 10.1007/s11548-019-02094-x
DO - 10.1007/s11548-019-02094-x
M3 - Article
C2 - 31741287
AN - SCOPUS:85075134595
VL - 15
SP - 1
EP - 14
JO - Computer-Assisted Radiology and Surgery
JF - Computer-Assisted Radiology and Surgery
SN - 1861-6410
IS - 1
ER -