ASU, Mayo Clinic forge new health innovation program
From left: Mary O’Reilly, vice president of bioscience research programs at the Flinn Foundation, Pankaj “Jay” Pasricha, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, and Heather Clark, director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, part of Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. These health care leaders are partnering to launch the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care Biomedical Engineering Program. Photo by Erika Gronek/ASU
Arizona State University is on a mission to drive innovations that will help people lead healthier lives and empower health care professionals to develop novel new health solutions. As part of that goal, the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU — with support from the Flinn Foundation — is announcing the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care Biomedical Engineering Program.
The program aims to enhance education and training opportunities for ASU and Mayo Clinic students, advancing pathways for medical entrepreneurship, clinical immersion and community embeddedness.
Through this new opportunity, faculty members and students gain a new pathway to leverage technological innovations to develop patient care solutions.
“This program highlights the transformative impact biomedical engineering can have on improving overall health outcomes for Arizonans and beyond,” says Kyle Squires, ASU’s senior vice provost for engineering, computing and technology and dean of the Fulton Schools. “Through this collaboration, we look forward to ASU and Mayo Clinic faculty and students laying the groundwork for the future of medicine through technological innovations.”
Researchers, clinicians and professors at both institutions are committed to creating medically focused research and learning opportunities for the next generation of biomedical engineers.
“The program exemplifies the rich and symbiotic partnership between Mayo Clinic Education and Arizona State University and our commitment to developing a new generation of health care professionals who will solve today’s challenges in novel and innovative ways,” says Devyani Lal, MD, dean of education at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. “I extend congratulations to Drs. (Heather) Clark and (Pankaj) Pasricha and sincere appreciation to the Flinn Foundation and the executive leaders of Mayo Clinic in Arizona and ASU for their robust support."
Rafael Fonseca, chief innovation officer at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, adds, “We are delighted to see further developments that strengthen the relationship between Mayo Clinic and ASU. This program builds on mutual strengths and will allow the solutions of the future to accelerate. We are also grateful for the trust placed on our teams by the Flinn Foundation.”
The new program between the two institutions builds on ASU’s longstanding collaboration with Mayo Clinic to create a cohesive learning ecosystem for students.
Conceptualized by Heather Clark, director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, and Pankaj “Jay” Pasricha, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic, the Mayo Clinic and ASU Alliance for Health Care Biomedical Engineering Program breaks ground for new opportunities for students and faculty members.
“This program encourages us to further build on the combined strengths of these two institutions, leveraging the expertise of researchers and clinicians at both ASU and Mayo Clinic,” Clark says. “By focusing on the needs of our community, we can explore how technology can make a meaningful impact while staying true to the core principles of engineering.”
Designing degree programs with real-world impact
Students can earn a doctorate or a master’s degree through this program. The new master’s degree in medical and patient care technologies will incorporate an entrepreneurial curriculum with clinical immersion and community embeddedness as key tenets of the program.
Launching in May 2025, the intensive, one-year master’s degree program begins with six weeks of clinical immersion rotation at Mayo Clinic, where students will spend the summer identifying unmet needs and opportunities that clinicians encounter in their practice.
“Students will get a firsthand view into how medicine is practiced in a real setting across various disciplines,” Clark says. “Then, they will take that information and work with a cross-institutional mentoring team of clinicians, industry professionals and faculty to propose solutions from an engineering point of view.”
Pasricha says that understanding pain points in clinical settings is vital to creating meaningful solutions.
The master’s degree program will leverage existing ASU resources, such as the Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University Alliance for Health Care MedTech Accelerator and Skysong Innovations, with Mayo Clinic Arizona to build a focused venture network and tools to support entrepreneurial development. Ideally, some students in the program will go on to file patents or launch startups that have the potential to positively impact the local economy.
Students will also have access to the Biomedical Engineering Design Center, a health care technology innovation facility and instructional space on ASU’s Tempe campus, which will be upgraded with funds from the Flinn Foundation to meet the technological needs of the program.
Through the program, faculty members and students will also benefit from more efficient data and resource sharing, including access to shared clinical equipment, lab space and the ASU Core Research Facilities.
Scaling community solutions to meet health care needs
The Flinn Foundation is a privately endowed philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing Arizona’s role as an entrepreneurial center for bioscience. The foundation focuses on enhancing the quality of life for the state’s future generations and has played an essential role in facilitating the advancement of the biomedical engineering program between ASU and Mayo Clinic.
Mary O’Reilly, the vice president of bioscience research programs at Flinn Foundation, says the program is a major step forward for the experiences and futures of Arizonans.
“Supporting Arizona’s researchers, students, doctors and patients is the ultimate investment for the community,” O’Reilly says. “While the students are getting an education, our expectation of those students is that they will produce valuable work across our community and any other community they join in the future.”
Representatives at ASU, Mayo Clinic and the Flinn Foundation have come together to provide engineering faculty members, students and trainees a distinct experience that will challenge them to rethink the traditional approach to clinical care solutions and disrupt the health care marketplace.
“Every person who goes into areas such as medicine or biomedical engineering hopes that they are going to change the world,” Clark says. “We’re simply providing opportunities that will help them make that difference.”
Hannah Weisman and Lanelle Strawder contributed to this story.
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