Course Meeting Times
First Half of Semester
- Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1 hour / session
- Labs: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session
Spring Break
- Field trip to Nicaragua
Second Half of Semester
- Occasional lectures and local field trips during class time
- Project team work: meeting times determined by teams
Course Goals
- Learn about the distinctive medical challenges of the developing world
- Learn to identify medical improvisations in the field
- Learn hands-on prototyping and medical device design skills
- Learn how to address safety, regulatory, and ethical challenges in device design
Course Structure
The semester is divided into two halves. The first half of the semester will focus on a survey of global health challenges and accelerated training on five medical device categories:
- Drug delivery
- Diagnostics
- Instrumentation
- Vital signs monitoring
- Microfluidics
Students explore each device category through instructional lectures and hands-on activities during two-hour lab sessions on Fridays. Students complete weekly lab assignments due the following Friday.
In between the first half and second halves of the semester, during spring break, students will travel to Nicaragua to observe, identify, and report public health and medical challenges that might be effectively addressed by appropriate medical technologies.
Upon returning from Nicaragua, students form teams around needs identified during the spring break trip. Students focus on device design and prototyping during the second half of the semester, advised by expert mentors and course instructors. A final poster and device prototypes will be presented during a capstone poster session at the MIT Museum at the conclusion of the semester.
Course Text
Hilts, Philip J. Rx for Survival: Why We Must Rise to the Global Health Challenge. New York, NY: Penguin, 2007 (reprint). ISBN: 9780143037989.
This text is supplemented by papers and resources listed on the Lectures and Readings and Labs and Readings pages.
Grading
| ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
|---|---|
| Class participation and attendance | 20% |
| Homework assignments | 15% |
| Lab notebooks and assignments | 25% |
| Presentations and design reviews | 25% |
| Final design/prototype | 15% |
Calendar
Each week is composed of two lectures and a lab session. Homework is assigned during the first lecture of the week, and due on the first lecture of the following week. Similarly, lab homework is assigned during lab and due one week later at the following lab session.
| LEC # | LECTURE TOPICS | LAB TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Part I: Survey of global health challenges and medical device categories | |||
| 1 | Introduction, global health overview | Lab 1: Drug delivery | Homework 1 due |
| 2 | Drug delivery overview | ||
| 3 | Infectious diseases | Lab 2: Diagnostics |
Homework 2 due Lab 1 homework due |
| 4 | Non-communicable diseases | ||
| 5 | Capturing heart and lung sounds on a mobile phone – guest lecture by Katherine Kuan | Lab 3: Instrumentation | Lab 2 homework due |
| 6 | Advances in telemedicine and patient monitoring | ||
| 7 | Vaccines | Lab 4: Vital signs monitoring | Lab 3 homework due |
| 8 | Arduous Arduino – guest lecture by Paul Hlebowitsh | ||
| Week #8: Spring break, Nicaragua trip | |||
| Part II: Project design and development | |||
| 9 | User and setting-driven innovations to advance global healthcare – guest lecture by Kris Olson | Lab 5: Microfluidics |
Homework 3 due Lab 4 homework due |
| 10 | Prototyping of medical devices | ||
| 11 | Neglected tropical diseases | Visit to Shriners Hospital for Children, Boston, MA | Lab 5 homework due |
| 12 | Disabilities in the developing world | ||
| 13 | Project team formation | Project team work | Lab 6 homework due |
| 14 | FDA approvals | FDA 510(k) homework due | |
| 15 | Project brainstorming | ||
| 16 | Visit to MIT laser cutter and 3-D printer | ||
| 17 | Project team work | ||
| 18 | Project team work | ||
| 19 | Project team work | ||
| 20 | Project team work | Blog/Lab notebook review Sketch model due | |
| 21 | Project team work | ||
| 22 | Project team work | ||
| 23 | Role-playing simulation games | Final prototype due at MIT Museum at D-Lab Finale | |
| 24 | Project team work, Sketch model review feedback | ||
| 25 | Project team work | No lab | |
| 26 | Project wrap-up | ||
