Research Intern - Surgery - Clinical

As the need for improved cancer care grows, there is an increased interest in the development of new medical technologies. The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's Division of Surgery's IDEAS Lab is an internal innovation hub intended to provide faculty and staff with the means of translating unmet clinical needs into novel medical technology, particularly focusing on physical devices to be used in patient care. With this goal, the IDEAS Lab is uniquely positioned to provide engineering students with an understanding of how engineering directly contributes to cancer care through our internship program.

The IDEAS Lab internship is modeled after needs-driven innovation, pulling from various systems design engineering processes in the context of medical device research and development, and trains students in a cancer-focused interdisciplinary framework to include clinical care, engineering, business, intellectual property, and regulatory. As such, our internship is comprised of three parts: clinical immersion, bio design education, and project work. Accepted students can expect the following activities during their internship with the IDEAS Lab:

This research internship provides hands-on exposure to clinical innovation, medical device development, and translational research. The Research Intern will observe a variety of surgical procedures across different surgical specialties to gain an understanding of clinical workflows, and the role technology plays in a clinical setting. The intern will participate in a two-week Biodesign workshop series focused on the medical device innovation process. Through this program, the intern will learn to identify and evaluate unmet clinical needs using literature and market research; elicit design criteria from clinical stakeholders to drive novel medical device design ideation; rapidly prototype novel concepts across multiple fidelity stages to achieve a minimum viable product; and conduct medical device strategy development, including regulatory, business, and intellectual property assessments, to identify pathways for translating novel concepts to the patient bedside.

In addition, the intern will support the advancement of projects within the IDEAS Lab project portfolio by contributing to hands-on research and development activities. Responsibilities may include applying clinical needs assessment methodologies, supporting concept generation and prototyping efforts, conducting market and technology evaluations, and assisting with strategy development to facilitate the translation of innovative solutions into clinical practice.

All duties and responsibilities are carried out in compliance with institutional policies, ethical research standards, and applicable federal and state regulations.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Learn Design Concept Analysis - Students will learn and apply the medical device product development process; the activities associated with this process include: 1)Needs finding/screening 2) concept generation through prototyping 3) strategy development and business planning (research existing patents and similar devices, market research).

Participate in Prototyping of Novel Medical Device Designs - Observation and assisted use of CAD/CAM modeling software such as Solidworks. Students may also learn prototyping with expired medical supplies and instruments, product rendering, technical engineering drawings, bench top testing, preparing for preclinical studies and/or IRB/IDE studies

Communication and clinician engagement - Students may assist clinicians to gather information regarding current clinical problems and proposed solutions; learn and practice organizing and presenting this information into a project summary that can be used by other IDEAS Lab staff

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
Students must be have recently graduated from an undergraduate or graduate program in life sciences and/or engineering in the last year.

POSITION INFORMATION
Offsite work arrangements are subject to approval and may be modified or revoked at any time based on business needs, performance considerations, or regulatory requirements.

This position may be responsible for maintaining the security and integrity of critical infrastructure, as defined in Section 113.001(2) of the Texas Business and Commerce Code and therefore may require routine reviews and screening. The ability to satisfy and maintain all requirements necessary to ensure the continued security and integrity of such infrastructure is a condition of hire and continued employment.

It is the policy of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to provide equal employment opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by institutional policy or by federal, state or local laws unless such distinction is required by law.