Mechanical & Industrial Engrg 381H - Inclusive Design/HlthCare hons

This course will focus on innovation to address social determinants of health challenges in healthcare. For example, during COVID telemedicine has seen a tremendous growth and application in healthcare. However, the question to explore is can we design more inclusive telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, or other remote/digital health technologies. For more specific examples, can blood pressure cuffs be put on if the patient has only one arm, or how can a person in a wheelchair weigh themselves on a Bluetooth scale? Are there issues for people of color etc. that either limit their ability to use or adopt some products (e.g., light-based sensors for pulse oximetry, pulse, and heart rate through the skin) or actually hurt their care because it reinforces racism like in the case of facial recognition and other AI decision support algorithms have been found to be biased and not as accessible to underrepresented populations?

This course is open to Senior & Junior Commonwealth Honors College students only. All junior or senior CHC Honors students may enroll. Other juniors or seniors in the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, or the iCons program who are interested in taking the course may email the instructor requesting permission to join if seats are still available only after prioritized CHC student enrollment. Please do not make this request until April 28th the earliest.

This course satisfies the IE Elective or Free Elective for Industrial Engineers and the MIE Elective for Mechanical Engineers. It does not satisfy a technical elective for either major.