The Medical Devices innovation track focuses on the imperative need to improve healthcare systems with more accurate and less invasive alternatives to treat, diagnose and prevent injuries and diseases. Both, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), define medical devices as pieces of equipment or apparatus that include a wide range of application and levels of complexity. With a history of 5% annual growth, the medical device industry is in continuous research and development with indefinite opportunity to innovate. Accordingly, the innovation track provides the skills and knowledge needed to pursue in this field.
This track prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers to revolutionize in this field. It will enhance the development of an entrepreneurial and business mindset customized to consider the challenges of this field (e.g. risks on human life, strict government regulations). Medical device development is costly and complex; therefore, objectives of this track include learning by implementing the design process into real problems.
To summarize, the track offers experiential learning related to:
(1) Entrepreneurial & business mindset
(2) Major challenges in medical device development (e.g. Governmental regulations)
(3) Data collection and experimentation with human subjects
(4) Design controls and protocols
(5) Assessment of clinical needs
(6) Design methodology
The program requires ININ 5105 as a core technical course that provides comprehensive knowledge and experiential learning of medical device development with project-based learning implemented to start creating a solution for a particular clinical need. Upon completion of this course, participants could continue developing the innovations they started in the program or replicate the process for other innovation. UPRM E-ship Network provides the support for the continuation of these projects and a series of core courses in entrepreneurship are offered every semester to complete the track. A second course must be taken from a list of elective courses for participants to reinforce their knowledge depending on their particular interests.