Innovators in Scrubs Offer Fresh Perspectives to Healthcare Challenges
The Innovators in Scrubs program gives McMaster students an impactful, hands-on learning opportunity.
The Innovators in Scrubs program gives McMaster students an impactful, hands-on learning opportunity. Innovators team up with clinical teams in Hamilton and Burlington to identify healthcare challenges and develop solutions that focus on user-centred and iterative design.
“If you want to make an impact and solve a problem, you first have to find a problem worth solving,” said Anna Korol, Assistant Professor of Medicine. “Students get an unparalleled look into the current state of the healthcare system and front-row seats to many of its pain points.”
The program teaches students how to innovate by prioritizing opportunities, developing solutions, and recommending implementation strategies. Innovators in Scrubs is offered for credit and certificate.
Integrated Biomedical Engineering (iBioMed) students in the Health Engineering and Entrepreneurship (HESE) specialization begin the program in their third year. Twenty-six IBEHS students are currently assessing opportunities at St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton General Hospital and the McMaster University Medical Centre.
The Innovators in Scrubs program is not limited to iBioMed students. In the certificate offering, Sarrah Lal, Assistant Professor of Medicine, works a mix of undergraduate, graduate and medical resident learners who show an aptitude for entrepreneurship.
An interdisciplinary seven-person team is currently working with Intensive Care Unit (ICU) clinicians at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. Proposed solutions show meaningful impact in healthcare as well as revenue-generation opportunities.
“Most innovations fail because they do not have a product-market fit. Either the problem does not exist, or the solution does not address a meaningful problem,” said Lal. “Bringing together a group of learners with training in business, engineering, health sciences and medicine allows Innovators in Scrubs teams to diminish the gap between the intended and realized value of innovations.”
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