The BME department, in collaboration with the Office for International Development and the Study Abroad Office, has entered into an agreement with the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa to bring BME junior, seniors, and MS students to Cape Town for a design-intensive, immersive experience in technology development for resource poor environments.
The Northwestern Global Health Technologies program is an intensive and immersive quarter-long course of study where students earn four course credits and work with front-line health care workers to develop medical devices designed specifically for the developing world.
The current program consists of four courses which integrate health care and health management projects and are taught on-site at the University of Cape Town:
- Healthcare in Resource Poor Environments.This course introduces the students to the healthcare needs of developing countries and provides a basic introduction to medical and clinical terminology and problems. Site visits to hospital departments and community institutions are an integral part of the course.
- Healthcare Technology Assessment and Planning. Students learn methods of macro- and micro-assessment and are introduced to concepts of cost-analysis as it relates to health status and health outcomes. The impact of technology life-cycles, innovation and application cycles, and approaches to technology transfer, strategic planning, healthcare technology policy, procurement process, standardization, and information resources will be examined in the context of a resource poor environment.
- Healthcare Technology Innovation and Design. This team-oriented, project-based course will provide students with an introduction to the fundamentals of biomedical engineering design. Students will work closely with faculty and health professionals with an emphasis on problem definition, user-centered solutions and the use of appropriate technologies.
- Race, Culture, and Identity in South Africa. This course is designed to introduce students to major issues in contemporary South Africa and the ways in which race, culture, and identity significantly affect access to healthcare and effective use of innovative medical technologies.
These courses guide the students’ approach to introducing appropriate technology to the developing world and are designed to integrate classroom teaching with medical device development.
Over the last three years, 40 engineering students have conducted medical device design in South Africa with collaborators at the University of Cape Town, the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, the World Health Organization, and officials and healthcare professionals throughout the Western Cape and Zimbabwe.
Other students (2006 and 2007 alumni of the Global Health Technology program) have worked with faculty on health technology in Guatemala, Tanzania, China, and Uganda.
In 2005, professors Kelso and Glucksberg traveled to South Africa and taught four courses with professors Poluta and Boonzaier of University of Cape Town to a class which included eight BME students and five UCT MS students. In 2007, 12 Northwestern students participated and generated a detailed survey of 10 community healthcare clinics of the Western Cape and completed three medical device projects.
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