Site and Clinical visits from summer 2016
The BIE program is comprised of a two-pronged immersion approach: (1) Clinical Visits where teams interact with clinicians and (2) Site Visits made where they observe and interview lead and expert users. Clinical Visit sites were chosen to span a wide range of specialties and environments. Before each visit, program members completed background research relevant to each site. In the Clinical Visits the teams observed clinical management of particular disease states, from logistical concerns to therapeutic strategies.
As with previous BIE summer programs, the teams observed and documented latent needs, issues, comments, and general unmet needs in a database of over 300 user need statements from their findings, which are used in the 2016 Capstone course.
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Clinical Visits
Center for Independent Living
An informed and thoughtful discussion with CIL staff about: what are major considerations with their mission, what are major unmet needs they view during their work, and how engineering/technology is helping today.
Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI)
At CHORI, a center for thalassemia and sickle cell disease, the BIE group visited the Iron Overload and Bone Density Clinics at the HEDCO Health Sciences Building. Dr. Marcela Weyhmiller lectured on the Iron Overload program, focusing on the clinical presentations, treatments, and outcomes associated with Sickle Cell Disease and Thalassemia patients treated at the clinic. Dr. Ellen Fung lectured on the Bone Density Health Clinic and the impact of effective nutritional and supplemental care in pediatric years to reduce the onset of geriatric osteoporosis. The two led the team on a tour of the SQUID and DXA machines. With the assistance of Dr. Lisa Calvelli, three members were given various DXA scans.
Mobile Dental Clinic
Small groups toured the mobile clinic truck with Clinical Program Manager Chris Grazzini during one of its stops.
San Francisco General Hospital Toxicology Laboratory
Teams sat in on a Grand Rounds session at the Poison Center and was given a tour of the Chemistry and Toxicology units in the laboratory and the ER, ICU, and IR units in the newly opened wing. Dr. Wu also led a lecture on successes and failures of past pointofcare devices and had a friendly competition for two teams to investigate and present on two Theranos, Inc. patents. The BIE group also observed a realtime Grand Round case at SFGH organized by the American Clinical Chemistry Association. During the event, medical fellows were presented a case and recommended treatment based on live test results provided by the toxicology lab.
San Francisco General Hospital Ward 86 HIV clinic
This visit included several presentations by clinicians, including a short history of Ward 86 and HIV, prevention and PrEP treatments, the SEARCH study, malaria chemoprevention, the chain of linkage and retention in care, and a brief history of HIV advocacy in San Francisco. After these talks, Dr. Susan Coffey gave a tour of the HIV ward, exam rooms, and offices.
San Francisco VA Medical Center’s Epilepsy Center
BIE teams met with Dr. John Hixson who provided them with a comprehensive lecture on epilepsy diagnostics and treatments followed by a tour of the clinic. They discussed the current standard of care and treatment in epilepsy, touring the inpatient monitoring unit and learning about potential for continuously monitoring wearables to diagnose and monitor epilepsy.
UC Davis Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Ambulatory Care Clinic)
At the Ambulatory Care Clinic, a BIE teams sat in on mutliple patient examinations, and they were able to ask patients directly about their conditions and any inhibitors to their quality of life.
UC Davis Small Animal Surgery Center
The BIE group observed surgeries in the Soft Tissue Surgery Department of the Small Animal Clinic. Surgical technicians guided the group through the operating rooms and provided background information about the different surgeries.
UCSF Liver Disease Clinic
Dr. Danielle Brandman lectured a BIE team on the basics of liver transplantation and proceeded with a tour of the Liver Transplant Clinic, 13 ICU, 9 Long, Interventional Radiology, Nursing, and Endoscopy units. The team met several stakeholders involved in preoperative and postoperative care and was able to observe huddles at the clinic and ICU.
UCSF Neuro Interventional Radiology
A BIE team witnessed an aneurysm and a meningioma case with Dr. Steven Hetts and his colleagues. They learned how modern medicine addresses aneurysms, meningiomas, and other vascular abnormalities, understand the impact of neurointerventional radiology in treating various diseases and conditions, and consider latent and manifest needs involved in this field.
Site Visits
Pharmacyclics, Inc.
The BIE group visited Pharmacyclics, a pharmaceutical company that sells the drug Imbruvica (ibrutinib) to treat patients with specific cancers affecting B cells of the immune system. Imbruvica is approved to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma, and Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia, and Pharmacyclics is currently performing clinical trials to treat other types of cancers. Their host was Dr. Sharon Horton, who answered questions regarding Pharmacyclics and the pharmaceutical industry.
IDEO Design for Health
The BIE group visited IDEO and met with Farzad Azimpour, MD. Dr. Azimpour gave them a tour of IDEO, including the machine shop and toy lab, and presented some of its successful products and the design considerations that went into them. He ended the tour with a presentation of how he got into biodesign and advice about the design process.
Medical Device Large Industry:
Intuitive Surgical
The group were given an introduction and demo of the da Vinci Surgical System by Research Coordinator Dale Bergman, a talk on the research and design process by Senior Director of Medical Research Jonathan Sorger, and a tour of the manufacturing facility by Senior Manager Rolando Zamora.
Scandic Springs, Inc.
The BIE group met with a sales engineer, Jason Hensel, and a materials engineer, Andrew Roberts. The two started with an introduction of the company in the training room, then led the cohort on a facilities tour before concluding with a discussion primarily focused on prototyping and design for manufacturing. The group also briefly met with the company president, Hale Foote at the end of the visit.
Mobile Medicine: Stanford Life Flight
A Relief Flight Nurse at Stanford Life Flight and gave the group a tour of the helicopter and explained the process of a life flight from receiving notification of an emergency or need of transport to handing off the patient to a safe point of care. The nurse discussed which devices are used during transport and what current pitfalls exist in both safety and treatment.