Clinical Immersion and Need Statement Development

This course will introduce students to the process of conducting clinical observations and interviews with the goal of identifying unmet needs in the healthcare sector. Students will work in teams to develop need statements that define the problem, population, and outcome associated each unmet need. Teams will use analyses introduced in the course to select (at least) three high-potential unmet needs from those identified. These needs will be presented to a faculty panel which will determine which needs will move forward as design projects. The course will include topics such as strategic focus, ethics in biodesign, observations and problem identification, interviews, value exploration, disease state fundamentals, existing solutions, stakeholder analysis, market analysis, need selection, and need specification.