Pittsburgh's Allegheny General Hospital has kicked off a new program inviting engineering students into the operating room and teaches them how to use biomedical technology. The idea behind the course, which involves students at the city's Carnegie Mellon University, is to prepare them to develop the next wave of surgical technology. The course has proven popular, with enrollment leaping from 12 students to 44 over the first three semesters it was offered. Working with surgeons, the students' job is to create a technology or improve a process, then write a paper and create drawings of their proposed technology. Some produce a prototype, if possible. The program offers students a unique opportunity to speak with surgeons and hospital personnel, learn what tools and technologies clinicians wish they had, and get hands-on experience with existing biomedical equipment, hospital officials said.
For more information on the program:
- read this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece