Do you have ideas about how to provide better care for patients that could use a device or new technology? Do see an opportunity for engineering and technological designs that could improve care for patients and your work?
The Great Plains IDeA-CTR is requesting design projects from clinical research partners to match with a research collaborator in engineering and technology. Whether you have an idea for a design solution and want to create a prototype or you have only nebulous ideas for how to address a problem, the Great Plains IDeA-CTR can help identify a collaborator for a design project.
Click here to complete the intake form. Submissions are due April 8.
The design projects are part of a larger technology initiative, with the objective of linking investigators and clinicians with engineering expertise. The goals of this initiative include:
- Integrating engineering and technological resources into clinical and translational research (CTR);
- Facilitating development of innovative tools for CTR clinicians and researchers;
- Linking engineering expertise and clinicians and researchers;
- Establishing a link between engineers and researchers to tech transfer experts; and
- Funding technology (engineering-medicine) pilot projects.
Four major components of this initiative are:
- Concierge service: Linking engineering expertise and clinicians
- Research studios: Focused on technology and innovation
- Design projects: Engineering students and faculty are paired to researchers/clinicians in need of prototype development and/or innovative solutions
- Engineering and technology track within the UNMC College of Medicine
Bethany Lowndes, PhD, assistant professor in the UNMC Department of Neurological Sciences, is serving as the health systems engineering liaison and will work to achieve the initiative's goals. Dr. Lowndes will work with the engineering liaison, Mark Riley, PhD, associate dean for research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering, and other faculty members to connect clinical researchers to partners in the appropriate fields of engineering and technology.
For more information and to become a member of the Great Plains IDeA-CTR Network, visit the network's website. With questions, email Dr. Lowndes.