As students in Engineering Medicine’s class of 2024 completed their first semester of medical school, EnMed’s leadership recognized their work toward becoming physicianeers. At the close of the semester, EnMed hosted its first-ever EnMed Innovation Awards.
“One of the first classes you’ll take as a student in EnMed is Practice of Medicine,” said Dr. Nick Sears, instructor of the course for EnMed. “In this class, students have opportunities to propose novel solutions to the clinical needs they observe while interacting with clinicians and engineers.”
According to Sears, EnMed students identified 168 clinical needs throughout the semester and presented potential innovative solutions to address those needs in subject areas ranging from device design to tissue engineering. Their presentations were judged by EnMed leadership, including the executive dean, Dr. Roderic Pettigrew.
“I am both delighted and proud to see that our class of 2024 is bringing EnMed’s mission to life by using the tools they’ve gained in just one semester to start identifying medical problems and develop practical solutions to address them,” Pettigrew said. “These future physicianeers, just in their first semester, have already taken steps toward solving some of health care’s more perplexing challenges through the convergence of engineering and medicine.”
Student presentations were scored based on the clinical need, background and the level of innovation involved in their solutions. The overall winner of EnMed’s Innovation Awards received a $100 gift certificate for excelling in all categories scored, while $50 gift certificates were given to students who scored highest in the individual categories.
From their very first day at EnMed, students start working toward inventing solutions to medical problems through regular design challenges and a blended engineering and medicine curriculum. Sears says that the students will have opportunities to continue their work on developing solutions to the needs they identified in their Practice of Medicine class, or pursue new innovations as they move deeper into their EnMed training.
Overall
Winner
- Matthew Armstrong: “Differentiate Different Kinds of Fluid in the Outer and Middle Ears”
Runner-up
- Adam Saleh: “Treatment Options for Patients in Respiratory Distress in Underdeveloped Countries”
Category I: Clinical Need
Winner
- Austin Hagen: “A Minimally Invasive Treatment of Aortic Coarctation”
Runner-up
- Caroline Jordan: “Motion Corrected 3D Lung Imaging”
Category II: Background
Winner
- Solyman Hatami and Maddie Franke: “Enhancing Liver Function in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease”
Runner-up
- Johnathan McMurray and Austin Hagen: “Locating Small Gastrointestinal Bleeding”
Category III: Innovation
Winner
- Natalie Miroballi and Austin Hagen: “Diagnose Compartments Syndrome in Symptomatic Patients”
Runners-up
- Shannon Lu: “Reduce Aerosol Exposure for Health Care Workers During Extubation”
- Matthew Armstrong and Tarek Dawaemne: “Preserve Muscle Tone and Strength in Zero Gravity”
- Caleb Haeussler and Will Singer: “Detect Onset of Avascular Necrosis in Patients with Fractures”
About EnMed
Engineering Medicine (EnMed) is the nation’s first medical school option that blends engineering and medicine to develop problem-solving physicianeers. Graduates of EnMed earn medical degrees and master’s degrees in engineering in four years and are required to develop solutions to health care problems.
