Clinical Innovation and Design

The Clinical Innovation and Design program is open to BSBME/MSE Integrated students in their 5th year (or first year of graduate standing) and to Dell Medical students in their 3rd year. BSBME/MSE students may complete this program as a component of their master's degree. Dell Medical students can complete this program as a distinction or as a component of the MD/MSE Dual Degree program. 

Program Contacts

Program Summary

Designing meaningful solutions to the current pressing needs in health care requires a variety of complex skills, including the ability to identify meaningful problems, design thinking to find creative solutions, and entrepreneurship to implement them. The CID (Clinical Innovation and Design) program offers medical students and BME master's students the opportunity to actively learn the process of medical technology and process innovation by working with biomedical engineering graduate students in a structured and mentored experience. As part of the program, students will identify concrete clinical needs and address them through technology.

The CID program is a collaborative effort between the Design Institute for Health, the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UT Austin, and the Texas Center for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease at UT Health Austin. The goal of this initiative is to train aspiring physicians and engineers on the process of medical innovation in order to improve health care in Austin and beyond.

Design is a process for defining and solving complex, human challenges. The practitioners of the future will require more than just clinical skills in order to translate human needs into solutions. For that reason, students embarking on the CID program will be taught and mentored by a multidisciplinary team of engineers, designers, clinicians, and business experts in order to acquire the skills necessary for human-centered design of meaningful medical technology and processes.

Curriculum

The 9-month program will be team-based, centered around a project to be selected by the students with the help of the mentors. Medical students will be paired with fifth-year biomedical engineering (BS/MS) students to form multidisciplinary teams. After a brief introductory course to include basics of design thinking, engineering, relevant clinical aspects, intellectual property, and regulatory affairs, the team will spend time observing clinicians and patients in the clinic, the intensive care unit, the hospital ward, the operating room, and beyond for several weeks. This observation period will yield a series of observations and clinical needs. After some initial research, the team will select one or two meaningful clinical needs to focus their efforts. Using design techniques, the team will brainstorm, iterate, prototype, and test different solutions to the selected need. It is anticipated that the team will create a viable prototype, perform some initial testing, and create a business plan or development project by the end of the Distinction. As an initial pilot, the inaugural team for this Distinction will focus on congenital heart disease. Based on the experiences gained from the pilot program, the clinical spectrum will expand to include other integrated practice units at UT Health Austin.

The CID program will uniquely center the project around a team to reinforce the multidisciplinary mindset and skill set needed to solve real-world challenges. The diversity of backgrounds, personalities, and beliefs of team members will push students to develop their leadership abilities in a flat team structure, which is a common working environment in the field of design and one which is increasingly utilized within health care. A real-world project inspired by a meaningful clinical need is the distinction’s catalyst for learning design.

BSBME/MSE students may choose to apply to and participate in the Clinical Innovation and Design program as a component of the Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) in Biomedical Engineering degree. 

Required Coursework Progression

        Fall: BME 682M Biodesign: Needs Identification (6 credit hours)       

        Spring: BME 683M Biodesign: Entrepreneurship (6 credit hours)

Virtual Information Session

Click here to view the slides from the March 1, 2021 virtual information session. 

Tuition and Fees

There are no fees associated with this program. Students pay standard graduate engineering tuition costs for the required 12 credit hours of coursework.

Application Timeline

Orientation

CID bootcamp typically takes place the full week prior to the beginning of fall classes. Attendance at the CID bootcamp is mandatory.