Stanford Biodesign/Bioengineering Clinical Need Identification Bootcamp for Undergraduates

Opportunity/Gap:
A core tenet of the “Biodesign innovation process,” as well as other human-centered design methodologies, is
the importance of innovators seeing first-hand the challenges they aim to solve. This exposure not only
provides a more complete appreciation of the problem at hand, but also allows innovators to use their
perspective as an “outsider” to glean unique insights that may be missed by those who experience a problem
daily. It is these first-hand observations of latent needs that often seed disruptive and meaningful innovations
that are vital in improving the quality and affordability of healthcare.
Today, the existing undergraduate courses in Bioengineering (and otherwise) at Stanford do not include a
robust needs finding curriculum or opportunities for students to directly participate in observing needs in clinical
practice.
Proposal:
Stanford Biodesign, in partnership with the Bioengineering Department and its capstone course team, as well
as with clinical collaborators across the School of Medicine, would like to guide and mentor undergraduate
students in an approach to needs identification that includes direct clinical observations along with need
research, need characterization, and clinical validation interviews. We believe these skills will be invaluable in
preparing student innovators to pursue careers in health technology whether in academia, medicine,
engineering, or business.
We propose to structure this as a part-time summer program (~6-10 hours/week), targeted at rising
Bioengineering seniors who are on campus for funded summer research experiences and can bring this
experience to their capstone course/team in the Fall.
Accordingly, we propose the following aims: (1) Develop a course curriculum for undergraduate students to
learn to identify and characterize clinical needs. (2) Develop assessment tools for evaluation of student
learning of the needs-identification and needs-characterization process. (3) Implement and document summer
training program through iterative development and assessment.

Grant Number: 5R25EB029387-05
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: DAN AZAGURY