A Novel Clinically Immersive Pre-doctoral Training Program for Engineering in Surgery and Intervention: Initial...

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering Education
• Translational Research Training
• Surgical Innovation

Background:

• Traditional engineering training often lacks direct clinical exposure.
• Bridging the gap between engineering principles and clinical practice is crucial for translational research.
• Developing effective pedagogical approaches for pre-doctoral engineering students in medicine is an ongoing challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a novel pre-doctoral program integrating surgical observation and clinical problem-solving.
• To evaluate perceived trainee improvements in posing clinical questions, knowledge of surgical technologies, and understanding of procedural medicine.
• To describe the program's constructivist and constructionist learning methodologies.

Main Methods:

• A dual-course suite combining scaffolded lectures and mentored clinical immersion.
• Lectures featured physicians presenting specialties interleaved with engineering principles.
• Immersion included operating room observation, clinical conferences, and patient rounds.

Main Results:

• Trainees observed an average of 15.6 surgeries/interventions over 48.2 contact hours.
• Significant perceived improvements were noted: 41% in understanding procedural medicine, 38% in surgical technologies, and 34% in posing clinical questions (p < 0.001).
• High levels of clinical contact and strong evidence of improved understanding were demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• The novel pre-doctoral program effectively integrates clinical immersion and didactic learning for engineering trainees.
• The program fosters significant improvements in trainees' clinical acumen and ability to identify critical research questions.
• This approach provides a robust model for training engineers in clinical translational research.