Preparing Students for the Complexity of the Systems Medicine Field through a Research Experience For Undergraduates (REU)

Abstract

Over the next few decades, the total cost of healthcare is anticipated to increase dramatically. 1 Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery, via model-based systems engineering methods, has the potential to slow this increase. One method to accomplish this is through the employment of engineers and scientists that have an understanding of mathematical modeling, biology, and clinical practice who can interact with caregivers and administrators to improve clinical outcomes. This field, also known as “systems medicine”, is an area that is currently underserved within the undergraduate education community. In response to the need for engineers and scientists cross-trained to effectively work on the medical interface, a National Science Foundation funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program (NSF EEC-1156899) has been run for the last three years (20122014) at the University of Pittsburgh. This program consisted of students being paired with one or more mentor(s) on a specific technical project over a ten-week period while receiving professional development opportunities through a weekly workshop series. The professional development opportunities included skills that are relevant to engineering or scientific careers such as scientific writing and presentation skills, as well as opportunities that provided students with the background and scope of the diverse systems medicine field. Students presented their work in a local undergraduate research poster session and provided a final presentation on their research results. Select students also presented their research at national meetings. To determine the effectiveness of the REU program for preparing students for the complexity of the systems medicine field, students completed concept maps detailing their vision of the systems medicine field at the start and end of their ten-week research experience. Completion of the concept map was done subsequent to a training exercise that was performed to familiarize students with concept maps and how they are constructed. Utilizing the Integrated Rubric for Scoring Concept Maps 2 , a three-point scale was used to score the concept maps on the basis of comprehensiveness, organization and correctness. Each concept map was scored by two individuals and an inter-rater reliability between fair and good reliability was found for all dimensions. The concept map scoring results for the three years of the REU program showed a slight but not statistically significant increase in the overall concept map scores from a mean of 6.13 at the start of the program to 6.32 upon completion of the program based on both the t-test and non-parametric Wilcoxon-Rank Sum test. Analysis of individual dimensions of the concept maps revealed that comprehensiveness scores increased from a mean of 1.68 to 1.92 (p=0.08 based on Wilcoxon-Rank Sum test), while organization and correctness scores did not demonstrate a significant change, if any, remaining at means of approximately 2.00 and 2.40, respectively. Based on these results, the REU program broadened the perspective that undergraduate researchers have of the systems medicine field, although the result is not statistically significant at present, likely due to the small sample size (N=60).