7/06/2022: Final submission guidelines are now available below. In brief, please submit a 2 page report as well as a 5 min recorded Powerpoint presentation. Your submission will be reviewed by our judging panel consisting of: Dr. Danny Sachs (Bakken Medical Device Center; Innovation Fellows Program); Dean Ana Núñez (University of Minnesota Medical School); Dr. Roger Sheldon (Encore program); and Vaugh Schmid (Office of Technology Commercialization).

1/28/2022: Group size has been increased to a maximum of 6 members.

1/2/2022: Initial proposals are now being accepted at: https://forms.gle/fK73D4oZkhv1MS8t5 (see below). Please specify whether you would like to receive seed money or not. We are now starting to assemble groups for the challenge. Please fill out this form if you want to be connected with other medical/engineering students and join our Slack channel. Please email us at mtic@umn.edu if you have any questions.

The goal of this initiative is to empower future clinicians to become leaders in medical technology innovation. We will host a series of workshops detailing the pipeline of medical technology development starting with the inception of new ideas to clinical deployment. Mentoring and support will also be provided for students who are interested in applying what they have learned to a personal idea. Initial proposals will be receive $100 of seed funding. The innovation challenge will culminate in a year-end competition where the top two technologies will receive a monetary award of $750 each and further support for clinical testing/commercialization.

• Groups of 1-6

• Each group needs to have at least one medical student

• The project topic of choice needs to have a clinical applicability focus and fall under one of two submission categories:

  • Clinical Care Tract: improve clinical care for patients

  • Quality of Life (QOL) Tract: improve health care provider and/or patient QOL

• If two proposals are identical, acceptance of proposals will be given on a first come first serve basis

• Initial proposals do not need to be considered in final judging, however all groups must indicate intention to participate in final competition by March 1, 2022 at 11:59PM

• Initial proposals are required to be eligible for seed money

• Groups are strongly encouraged to have an initial meeting with their mentors to establish a mentee-mentor relationship and submit an attestation form upon the completion of this meeting

• Final proposal must be submitted by August 1, 2022 at 11:59PM. Late proposals will not be accepted for final judging

• The top two proposals will be awarded $1000 and $800 respectively, which must be used for further development.

Must submit the following to mtic@umn.edu by Aug 1st 11:59 PM:

1) Two page-limit report (Arial or Times New Roman, 11 point font, 1-inch margins) with the following sections:

A) Motivation and Background (Description of Clinical Problem)

B) Progress (Description of technology; Validation data)

C) Milestones

D) Project Timeline

2) One recorded PPT oral presentation. 5 min max length. This will be shown to the judges.

Presentation should introduce the proposed technology and explain rationale for the technology (i.e. clinical problem). Frame the presentation as if you were presenting your technology to investors or to major "shareholders" (i.e. CEO of hospital, dean of medicine, department chair, etc.) that would support the incorporation of your technology into the clinic.

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Projects will be scored by our judging panel by the following criteria:

Ranking Criteria (scale of 1-5)

1) Clinical Problem (Is there sufficient rationale for addressing the selected clinical problem? What groundwork and background research was conducted to confirm that the proposed technology will improve the clinical problem?)

1 - No rationale provided

2 - Some rationale provided, but unconvincing that proposed technology will improve clinical problem

3 - Good rationale provided, but major questions still remain on whether proposed technology will improve clinical problem

4 - Excellent rationale provided, but minor questions still remain on whether proposed technology will improve clinical problem

5 - Excellent rationale provided

2) Impact (How well does your proposed technology solve the clinical problem you have selected?)

1 - Technology does not solve clinical problem

2 - Technology only solves minor aspects of clinical problem

3 - Technology solves one major aspect of clinical problem

4 - Technology solves many major aspects of clinical problem, but falls short of completely solving it

5 - Technology completely solves clinical problem

3) Feasibility (Ease of use; How feasible is it to incorporate your proposed technology into the current clinical workflow?)

1 - Incorporating technology into the clinic/hospital will be impossible or require major overhaul of current healthcare system

2 - Incorporating technology into the clinic/hospital feasible, but contingent on significant training by healthcare workforce (3 or more changes to current clinical workflow)

3 - Incorporating technology into the clinic/hospital is feasible, but requires 1-2 major changes to current clinical workflow

4 - Incorporating technology into the clinic/hospital is feasible, but requires minor changes to current clinical workflow

5 - Incorporating technology into the clinic/hospital is feasible, with no changes to current clinical workflow

4) Progress (Amount of progress that has been made on the technology to date.)

1 - No progress has been made

2 - Prototype designed

3 - Prototype constructed

4 - Successful test run of prototype completed

5 - Prototype currently being trialed by cohort of participants

5) Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (Were attempts to improve equitable access to your technology incorporated into the design?)

1 - No mention of DEI

2 - Minor inclusion of DEI

3 - Some inclusion of DEI

4 - Good inclusion of DEI

5 - Excellent inclusion of DEI

• Groups of 1-6

• Each group needs to have at least one medical student

• The project topic of choice needs to have a clinical applicability focus and fall under one of two submission categories:

  • Clinical Care Tract: improve clinical care for patients

  • Quality of Life (QOL) Tract: improve health care provider and/or patient QOL

• If two proposals are identical, acceptance of proposals will be given on a first come first serve basis

• Initial proposals do not need to be considered in final judging, however all groups must indicate intention to participate in final competition by March 1, 2022 at 11:59PM

• Initial proposals are required to be eligible for seed money

• Groups are strongly encouraged to have an initial meeting with their mentors to establish a mentee-mentor relationship and submit an attestation form upon the completion of this meeting

• Final proposal must be submitted by August 1, 2022 at 11:59PM. Late proposals will not be accepted for final judging

• Winning proposal from each tract will be awarded $750, which must be used for further development.

1. Identify a clinical problem and envision a technological solution

2. Learn how to communicate clinical problem with engineers

3. Learn how to recruit a multidisciplinary team and coordinate with them to develop a technological solution

4. Test in clinic and revisions to improve technology

Email: mtic@umn.edu

Will receive response within 24 hours.