Uncovering innovation opportunities in the diagnosis and treatment of eye diseases including cataract, cornea, glaucoma, and retinal surgery

Sunnybrook Research Institute has developed the Medventions internship program, an immersive 4-month project-based internship program that brings together multidisciplinary teams of students in the process of identifying hospital-based clinical challenges and the conceptualization and implementation of technology to improve healthcare. The interns are given a unique opportunity to directly observe the full cycle of care from diagnosis and treatment to recovery and discharge with the ultimate goal of discovering problems and opportunities that will have major impact on patient outcomes and the management and delivery of healthcare. The program starts by the interns performing clinical observations, identifying clinical needs, and performing intensive research and validation to better understand those needs and how they impact healthcare. Once a clinical need is selected, interns utilize human-centered design thinking methods to brainstorm solutions and create rough prototypes for testing. While developing solutions, interns research everything from intellectual property issues and business models to reimbursement and regulatory pathways to select the best solution with the highest commercialization potential and impact on patient care. For this upcoming cohort, the team will focus on advancing innovative eye care solutions for important unmet needs in the areas of cataract surgery and retinal procedures.

Faculty Supervisor:

Sherif El-Defrawy

Student:

Partner:

Sunnybrook Research Institute;Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

University of Toronto

Program: