Weil Institute to establish training program for critical care engineers
The program will equip the next generation of engineers to collaboratively develop, test and commercialize life-saving innovations.
Contact:
Katelyn Murphy, Marketing Communications Specialist, Weil Institute
mukately@med.umich.edu
ANN ARBOR, MI – Every second counts in critical care. Given the complex and time-sensitive nature of acute and critical illness and injury, technologies used to manage these conditions must work rapidly, be highly accurate, and be easy to use by various medical personnel both in and out of the hospital. However, there are currently no structured opportunities that teach engineers how to address the distinct design and technical needs of the acute care space.
To fill this gap, the University of Michigan Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation has established the Acute and Critical Care Engineering (ACCE) Training Program—a two-year course that will equip doctoral engineering students to not only develop these highly specialized innovations but to also move them from the bench to real applications in patient care.
“Acute and critical care is truly a unique umbrella within medicine, but technology development in this area is lagging to the detriment of millions of patients annually,” said Dr. Kenn Oldham, U-M Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Associate Director at the Weil Institute and Director of the ACCE program. “Our goal is to provide students with an understanding of the clinical and technological issues present in this field, as well as exposure and formal mentorship in clinical environments, and education in technology transfer to ensure new devices are appropriately designed and will successfully make their way into the hands of providers.”
A core component of the ACCE program is its focus on interdisciplinary mentorship. The program is run jointly by the U-M College of Engineering and Michigan Medicine and features a mentor cohort comprised of over 40 faculty members from multiple departments across both schools. Students will learn from a primary engineering mentor and a secondary clinical mentor who will guide them in their research, involve them in ongoing collaborative projects, and help them develop the skills needed to communicate effectively across medical and engineering fields. All ACCE mentors have expertise in the program’s core technology focus areas as well as extensive experience collaborating across acute and critical care. They are also connected through of a cohesive network of common research interests united within the Weil Institute.
"Acute and critical care is truly a unique umbrella within medicine, but technology development in this area is lagging to the detriment of millions of patients annually."
Kenn Oldham, PhD
Professor, Mechanical Enginnering, University of Michigan
Associate Director, Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation
Unique to ACCE training is its Clinical Immersion aspect which will give students broader exposure to operations across acute and critical care by allowing them to shadow clinicians working in their own environment. Students will be able to conduct their observations in multiple intensive care units (ICUs) in Michigan Medicine’s University Hospital and Mott’s Childrens Hospital including the Emergency Critical Care Center (EC3), the nation’s first emergency department-based ICU.
“Much of engineering is centered around understanding the needs of the users and stakeholders—and we are generally getting this information second hand—so we want to put the students right there to shadow and do their own observations,” said Oldham. “They can then bring their observations back into talks with other students and faculty and can keep returning to these contacts to make their future innovations more likely to be successful in eventual patient care.”
ACCE training also includes a twice-monthly design studio that will provide additional education in biomedical device design and commercialization not covered in existing coursework through collaborations with U-M expert groups such as Fast Forward Medical Innovation (FFMI) and the Office of Innovation Partnerships; a monthly journal club for peer-to-peer discussions about current literature in acute and critical care engineering; and an annual symposium where ACCE trainees will be able to present their research and network with field leaders and experts. ACCE trainees will also have access to various Weil Institute resources, such as its lecture series, Data Science Core, Clinical Research Unit, and Preclinical Critical Care Laboratory.
Technologies used to manage critical illnesses and injuries must work rapidly, be highly accurate, and be easy to use by various medical personnel both in and out of the hospital. ACCE training will equip Engineering students with the specialized know-how to tackle these challenges.
The ACCE program is supported by a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB). Dr. Oldham and his team began developing the program in 2021 and worked closely with the Weil Institute’s Proposal Development Unit (PDU) throughout.
“The T32 mechanism requires significant effort beyond a standard research grant, including collecting biosketches and training table information from dozens of mentors,” said Meagan Ramsey, Proposal Development Director at the Weil Institute. “We managed this effort in collaboration with Lynn Kujawa, who is the Research Administrator in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. This allowed the ACCE team to focus more energy on program design and proposal writing.
“Developing this program and getting all of these moving parts into place would not have been possible without the assistance we got through the PDU and Lynn,” said Oldham. “They did a tremendous amount of work putting this together.”
The grant was co-written with Dr. Kevin Ward, Executive Director of the Weil Institute and Professor of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, and Dr. Katsuo Kurabayashi, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, who also serve as the ACCE program’s Clinical Associate Director and Engineering Associate Director, respectively.
“The potential to transform the field of critical care by training the next generation of engineers through initiatives like the ACCE program cannot be overstated,” said Dr. Ward. “Graduates of this program will become future leaders in the field.”
The ACCE program is now actively recruiting its inaugural group of students, with classes scheduled to officially begin in the fall.
“Through this program, trainees will learn to communicate and collaborate across engineering and biomedical disciplines, ensuring that they are prepared to actively participate in and lead interdisciplinary research teams,” said Oldham. “Ultimately, they will be equipped to develop systems that are seamlessly integrated and relevant to the clinical needs across acute and critical care, propelling their careers in a way that is not currently possible.”
This program is supported by the National Institutes of Health under award number 1T32EB032756-01A1.
Grant Authors:
Kenn Oldham, Ph.D. (Weil Institute, Mechanical Engineering)
Katsuo Kurabayashi, Ph.D. (Weil Institute, Mechanical Engineering)
Kevin Ward, M.D. (Weil Institute, Emergency Medicine, Biomedical Engineering)
About the Weil Institute, formerly MCIRCC
The team at the Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation (formerly the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care) is dedicated to pushing the leading edge of research to develop new technologies and novel therapies for the most critically ill and injured patients. Through a unique formula of innovation, integration and entrepreneurship that was first imagined by Weil, their multi-disciplinary teams of health providers, basic scientists, engineers, data scientists, commercialization coaches, donors and industry partners are taking a boundless approach to re-imagining every aspect of critical care medicine. For more information, visit weilinstitute.med.umich.edu.
About the College of Engineering
Michigan Engineering is home to more than a dozen top-ranked departments and programs that collaborate within the nation’s No. 1 public university, the University of Michigan. College faculty provide educational, scientific and technological leadership to the world, and make a difference across diverse frontiers such as data and computing, energy and sustainability, advanced materials, health and national security. They are involved in spacecraft missions across the solar system; they’re working to transform mobility and they’re advancing robotics to serve humanity. An alumni base of nearly 90,000 spans the globe, carrying out Michigan Engineering’s mission to serve the common good. For more information, visit www.engin.umich.edu.