Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

First Half of Semester

• Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1 hour / session
• Labs: 1 session / week, 2 hours / session

Spring Break

• Field trip to Nicaragua

Second Half of Semester

• Occasional lectures and local field trips during class time
• Project team work: meeting times determined by teams

Course Goals

• Learn about the distinctive medical challenges of the developing world
• Learn to identify medical improvisations in the field
• Learn hands-on prototyping and medical device design skills
• Learn how to address safety, regulatory, and ethical challenges in device design

Course Structure

The semester is divided into two halves. The first half of the semester will focus on a survey of global health challenges and accelerated training on five medical device categories:

1. Drug delivery
2. Diagnostics
3. Instrumentation
4. Vital signs monitoring
5. Microfluidics

Students explore each device category through instructional lectures and hands-on activities during two-hour lab sessions on Fridays. Students complete weekly lab assignments due the following Friday.

In between the first half and second halves of the semester, during spring break, students will travel to Nicaragua to observe, identify, and report public health and medical challenges that might be effectively addressed by appropriate medical technologies.

Upon returning from Nicaragua, students form teams around needs identified during the spring break trip. Students focus on device design and prototyping during the second half of the semester, advised by expert mentors and course instructors. A final poster and device prototypes will be presented during a capstone poster session at the MIT Museum at the conclusion of the semester.

Course Text

Hilts, Philip J. Rx for Survival: Why We Must Rise to the Global Health Challenge. New York, NY: Penguin, 2007 (reprint). ISBN: 9780143037989.

This text is supplemented by papers and resources listed on the Lectures and Readings and Labs and Readings pages.

Grading

Calendar

Each week is composed of two lectures and a lab session. Homework is assigned during the first lecture of the week, and due on the first lecture of the following week. Similarly, lab homework is assigned during lab and due one week later at the following lab session.