Engineering students the newest faces at hospital

October 30, 1998

GAINESVILLE — Biomedical engineering student Patricia Kwong spends a few hours each week following a neurologist and epilepsy specialist on rounds at Shands hospital, and she’s learning a lot about epilepsy and how doctors monitor and treat patients.

But the experience also is a forceful reminder of the importance of developing new and better technologies and treatments.

“Going in to see the patients, you really feel the urgency of all this,” said Kwong, 23.

Medical students have been shadowing doctors as part of their training for years. But Kwong and nine other students in the University of Florida’s newly launched biomedical engineering graduate program are UF’s first class of engineers to do so. They likely will never treat a single patient, but shadowing gives them a firsthand look at the human side of medicine and the limitations of today’s technologies and techniques.

The two-credit class’ goal is to allow students to put their engineering skills to work crafting new or improved designs based on doctors’ ideas or their own innovations.

“We want students to think about how they can apply what they’re learning in engineering to real-world problems,” said Chris Batich, director of the biomedical program and a professor of materials science engineering. “We also want them to be able to work with non-engineers, such as doctors or nurses.”

The shadowing program also will help students decide where they want to specialize in biomedical engineering, said Dr. Richard Melker, co-director of the program and a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at UF’s College of Medicine.

“The shadowing enhances communication because students have an opportunity to see what doctors do and the context in which they describe things,” Melker said. “Shadowing also helps students better define and decide which specific discipline interests them within the biomedical field.”

Kwong, who holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering science with a minor in biomechanics, was interested in epilepsy but had little medical knowledge about the disease before she started shadowing Dr. Robin Gilmore in September.

But after tri-weekly hourly visits for the past two months, she’s already launched work on a project to automate a crucial test epilepsy patients undergo prior to surgery. With current technology, epilepsy EEG-technologists conducting the test often miss important data, forcing them to retrace steps using videotapes and recorded data.

Gilmore said Kwong’s analytical background and fresh nonmedical perspective is helping her approach automating the current process. “We’re too close to the trees and can’t always see the forest,” she said.

Kwong said she is also using her knowledge of available new technology for the project, which could evolve into a master’s thesis project for her or another biomedical engineering graduate student, or a senior-level undergraduate project.

Students will complete the shadowing class in the first year of the biomedical engineering graduate program because it’s intended to serve as an entree to other parts of the program focusing on product documentation, patenting and licensing, Batich said.

“When you see a problem and find a way of solving it, the solution is often patentable,” he said. “And if it’s patentable, we’ll go ahead and perform those steps.”

Students aren’t the only beneficiaries of the shadowing program, said Roger Tran-Son-Tay, a professor in the aerospace engineering, mechanics and engineering sciences department and a biomedical engineering specialist. “It also provides an opportunity for faculty in engineering and faculty in the medical college to collaborate,” he said.

The biomedical engineering graduate program was launched this year with a $1 million grant from the Whitaker Foundation, a private, nonprofit foundation that supports research and education in biomedical engineering. Several College of Engineering and College of Medicine departments are participating, with the department of anesthesiology recently donating the program a human patient simulator. The program is the only biomedical engineering program in the State University System.