Distinction-Clinical Innovation and Design

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 Distinction in Clinical Innovation and Design offers medical 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 Distinction in Clinical Innovation and Design is a collaborative effort between 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 Distinction in Clinical Innovation and Design 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 8-month distinction 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 bioengineering (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 Distinction in Clinical Innovation and Design will uniquely center the project around a team to reinforce the multidisciplinary mindset and skillset 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.

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. Students may earn a distinction or a master's degree, but not both. Students who choose to participate in Clinical Innovation and Design as a component of the MSE will be awarded only a master's degree and not a distinction. 

An undergraduate degree in engineering is not required to participate in this program. 

Virtual Information Session

Click here to view the slides from the September 2023 virtual information session. 

Tuition and Fees

There are no additional academic tuition or fees associated with this distinction. 

Application Timeline

MS1

• Read about the Distinction and speak to upperclassmen in the Distinction
• Attend the information session in April

MS2

• MS2 Intersession 1: Attend the information session during the first MS2 Intersession; meet with program representatives to learn if the program is a good fit.
• MS2 Intersession 2: Work on application, interview with director
• MS2 Intersession 3: Complete application, interview with director

Orientation

When known, the orientation date will be listed in the DMS MS3 Academic calendar.

Grading Rubric