Image guided surgery innovation with graduate students - a new lecture format

Abstract

Abstract In Image Guided Surgeries (IGS), incremental innovation is normally not a technology push (technology delivered) but rather a pull (by learning and working with the clinical users) from understanding how these surgeries are performed. Engineers need to understand that only through proper observation, procedure know-how and subsequent analysis and evaluation, clinically relevant innovation can be generated. And, it is also essential to understand the associated health economics that could potentially come with new technological approaches. We created a new lecture format (6 ECTS) for graduate students that combined the basics of image guided procedures with innovation tools (Design Thinking, Lean Engineering, Value Proposition Canvas, Innovation Games) and actual visits of a surgical procedure. The students had to attend these procedures in small groups and had to identify and work on one or more innovation projects based on their observations and based on a prioritisation of medical need, pains and gains of the stakeholders, and ease of implementation. Almost 200 graduate students completed this training in the past 5 years with excellent results for the participating clinicians, and for the future engineers. This paper presents the lecture content, the setup, some statistics and results with the hope that other institutions will follow to offer similar programs that not only help the engineering students identify what clinically relevant innovation is (invention x clinical implementation), but that also pave the path for future interdisciplinary teams that will lead to incremental and disruptive innovation.