This course provides an overview of contemporary technological advances to improve human health. We will consider four questions throughout the semester:
What are the problems in healthcare today?
Who pays to solve problems in healthcare?
How can we use science and technology to solve healthcare problems?
Once developed, how do new healthcare technologies move from the lab to the bedside?
We will compare and contrast answers to these questions throughout the developed and developing worlds. We will also consider legal and ethical issues associated with developing new medical technologies. During the semester, we will use case studies to examine a number of diseases and healthcare technologies. The course stresses active learning with many web-based and group activities. Students will choose a disease and a health technology they are interested in to examine in more detail.
Course topics: an overview of contemporary tech nological advances to improve human health. With an introduction to the epidemiology and physiology of the major global human health problems, the main focus of the course is to examine the engineering method as applied to medical technologies, with consideration of the legal and ethical issues associated with its development.