Why is this intervention important to medical education?

Engineering in medicine is a catalyst for facilitating multidisciplinary collaborations in research and education. The focus of this intervention is to remove the boundaries between engineering and clinical disciplines. Interprofessional collaboration is defined as "when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care." However, it can be more than that as the growing importance of engineering in medicine is quickly becoming evident. Hence, individuals with engineering backgrounds cannot be excluded from the definition of such interprofessional collaboration.

Do other organizations support this assertion?

Engineering in medicine is becoming more of a pronounced theme in today's academic and industrial society. The field of engineering offers more potential significance to medical evolution. Many medical schools have had created centers for engineering in medicine in order to work at the convergence of engineering, science, and translational medicine (e.g., Institute for Medical Engineering and Science at MIT).

What teaching method is utilized?

Project-based learning is a student-centered pedagogy that involves a dynamic classroom approach in which it is believed that students acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world challenges and problems.

Why is this intervention especially important for our NYITCOM medical students?

Medical students at our College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM) study/practice multitude of clinical disciplines on the same campus next to the Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) students from College of Engineering and Computing Sciences (NYIT-CoECS), College of Arts and Sciences (NYIT-CoAS) and School of Architecture and Design (NYIT-SoAD). Therefore, New York Tech has an immense untapped potential to contribute to the medical evolution by facilitating interprofessional collaboration between its colleges.

How to apply?

By e-mail: mtoma@nyit.edu.

Important Dates

Application deadline: May 23, 2021
End of planning phase: August 31, 2021
End of construction phase: December 15, 2021

Modules

The program is divided into a planning phase (modules 1-3) and a construction phase (modules 4-7).

Planning (Summer 2021)	1	Create student teams that consist of two to three STEAM students from College of Engineering and Computing Sciences (NYIT-CoECS) / College of Arts and Sciences (NYIT-CoAS) / School of Architecture and Design (NYIT-SoAD) and one to two student doctors from College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYITCOM)
	2	The student doctor from NYITCOM identifies issues based on their own experience as well as based on their conversations with medical professionals and other caregivers.
	3	The student doctor clearly communicates the issues to be solved to their engineering student teammates. They evaluate the options together and work on solutions. All members equally share the ownership of their final product.
Construction (Fall 2021)	4	Once a clearly-defined project has been approved by NYITCOM, student teams must draft a project proposal.
	5	They use the fabrication labs (e.g. Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center (ETIC) and Student Machine Shops) at NYIT-CoECS / NYIT-CoAS / NYIT-SoAD to create prototypes.
	6	Student teams submit a working prototype to NYITCOM, as well as a final report and 3-6 minute video demonstration of their work.
	7	Students participate in a symposium to demonstrate their inventions to the public. Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Journal of Dawning Research.