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Posted 7-19-01
CLEVELAND -- Case Western Reserve University is launching a new M.D./Ph.D. program in biomedical engineering that is designed to produce graduates who solve medical problems with engineering applications. The new dual-degree Physician-Engineer Training Program in biomedical engineering builds on the strengths of CWRU's medical and engineering schools, which share one of the nation's top-ranked biomedical engineering departments.
The program will complement the existing M.D./Ph.D. Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at the medical school. The MSTP, which the National Institutes of Health has funded for more than a quarter of a century, is one of the longest-running and most successful programs of its kind. Among graduates of CWRU's MSTP are two Nobel laureates and the nation's current surgeon general.
CWRU officials anticipate that the new program will grow to be as successful as the MSTP, after which it is modeled. But while the MSTP focuses on laboratory-oriented basic science research, the new program will fulfill an unmet important need -- emphasizing new technologies for clinical applications in diagnosis or treatment.
Students will focus on such things as the development of artificial or tissue-engineered organs, implantable prosthetics, medical instrumentation, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and related nanoengineering technology for clinical applications.
Patrick Crago, chair of CWRU's Department of Biomedical Engineering, said that this program differs from more traditional ones. The students will focus on the creation of new devices or platform technologies for diagnosis and treatment, rather than on basic biomedical science.
"This program will be ideal for people interested in creating novel solutions to clinical problems," says Crago. He adds that this focus makes it unique in the country. "I have found no other M.D./Ph.D. program with a specific biomedical engineering focus," he says.
Two students have been admitted for this fall. CWRU has a goal of growing enrollment to 10 new students annually. With this level of recruitment, the program will have 70-80 students at any given time, with about 30-40 students in the dissertation phase and 30-40 students in the physician-training phase.
Students will spend the first two years of the program taking classes in the medical school; participating in one or two research rotations in university, hospital, or local industrial research laboratories; and enrolling in one or two graduate courses. During the third, fourth, and fifth years, students will complete the Ph.D. portion of the program and will then finish medical school during the final two years.
Students will have their tuition and fees paid, and will receive a stipend. The medical school will fund the physician training, and research faculty mentors will support the dissertation phase through their research grants until grants can be secured from local and national funding organizations. Graduates of the program will be fully prepared for careers in biomedical device and biotechnology industries, as well as for academic careers in biomedical engineering or clinical medicine.
"This program puts CWRU and Cleveland on the leading edge of medical technology and development," said Nathan Berger, dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs. "Technological advances and development of new devices will play increasingly major roles in our health care system, from how we diagnose and treat patients, to changing the cost of health care. We hope to develop physicians who understand and apply this new technology while maintaining the highest humanistic principles upon which the CWRU medical school is built."
Robert Savinell, interim dean of the Case School of Engineering, said, "Engineering has the potential to increase the quality of health care while increasing the cost-effectiveness of advanced technologies. Achieving this potential requires that engineers understand the health care delivery system and the perspectives of the end users of the technology. The interdisciplinary training offered by this new program will create biomedical engineers that are ideally prepared to realize this potential."
For more information about the program, call 216-368-4063.