CMIH Experiential Learning in Healthcare
A program for undergraduate students with an entrepreneurial interest.
In today’s increasingly complicated and costly healthcare landscape, there is a need and an opportunity for new ideas and approaches to be created and developed to make a fresh impact. We believe students at the University of Arizona can contribute to this field and benefit from such learning experience as they start their own careers. The objective of this new program is to provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to conduct a hands-on, interdisciplinary experiential learning project. Students will build a research or a business prototype that addresses a problem, question, or need in healthcare. They will work in small, interdisciplinary teams of two or three students with at least one member in a healthcare or medical field. The projects will be data-driven, and leverage data science, AI, or other STEM solutions to solve existing problems.
Students will receive a $500 stipend and Eller or Honors College credit. Applications will open in October 2024. Check back here. The program start date is January 2025.
Topics and Scope
Each year, a specific theme will be chosen. The theme will be broad and fit a variety of projects. Students can propose their problem to solve or can select from a provided list of potential problems.
2025 Theme:
The Emergency Department:
Projects addressing problems from the patient, provider, and public perspective.
Eligibility
All University of Arizona undergraduate students will be eligible. Teams with at least one Eller undergraduate student will receive priority. The application process will consist of a one-page proposal describing the problem to be solved and its importance, team members (if known), potential advisors, and prior work done. Projects that extend course work or are complementary to course work are encouraged, however, they have to be separate since credit will be assigned for them.
Domain experts will serve different roles depending on their availability, ranging from answering questions by email and in person to hosting people for a tour or shadowing.
ON CAMPUS
Srikar Adhikari, MD, Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
Dave Biffar, MS, ASTEC, Director of Operations
Expertise: Business Side Simulation in Healthcare; Business Plans, Systems Integration Hospital with Simulation Center; Medical Devices-Company
Kate Ellingson, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Expertise: Infectious Diseases Epidemiology; Infection Prevention; Healthcare-Associated Infections; Occupational Health
John Galgiani, MD, College of Medicine/Valley Fever Center of Excellence
Expertise: Valley Fever
Allan Hamilton, MD, ASTEC, Executive Director
Expertise: AI in Healthcare
Joanna Katsanis, PhD, College of Medicina, Associate Clinical Professor, Psychiatry
Nell Maltman, PhD, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Expertise: Autism, Speech/Language, Cognition, Genetics
Mike Myers, MBA, Eller College of Management
Expertise: Advertising, Marketing, Consulting, Entrepreneurship, Pharma, Medical Device, Biotech, Market Access
Sudha Ram, PhD, Professor of Management Information Systems
Expertise: Healthcare Analytics, Mechine Learning, AI Applications in Healthcare
Sydney Rice, MD, College of Medicine/Department of Pediatrics
Expertise: Outpatient Clinical Care, Children, Disabilities, Autism
Ritu Pandey, PhD, Associate Research Professor, Cellular and Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, Associate Director Translational Bioinformatics, Center for Biomedical Informatics and Biostatistics
Expertise: Data driven insights, Precision medicine, translational bioinformatics, connecting biomedical data points.
Seokjun Youn, PhD, Management Information Systems
Expertise: Operational Efficiency in Healthcare Delivery Systems; Patient Flow and Healthcare Resource Management; Health IT, Patient Portal, and Online Health Communities; Clinical Practice Variation; Capacity Planning and Scheduling in Healthcare. Data Analytics and Machine Learning
Beth Zerr, PharmD, Department of Pharmacy Practice at the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy
Expertise: Telehealth; Pharmacy; Diabetes; Women's Health; Primary Care; Transitions of Care
OFF CAMPUS
Zachary Brooks, PhD, CEO, UGenome
Hirsch Handmaker, MD, Research Professor of Radiology, UACOM-P, Chairman and CEO, The CACTIS Foundation
Jared Perkins, CEO, Children's Clinics Tucson
Expertise: Healthcare Administration, Financing and Healthcare Systems
Ramona Walls, PHD, Executive Director of Data Science, Data Collaboration Center, C-Path Institute
Expertise: Data Science, Data Management, Standards, Clinical Data, Regulatory Standards, Public Private Partnerships
- An Arizona wait times website (compare to DMV wait time for emissions testing).
- Educational chatbots, e.g., go to the ER or elsewhere?
- Compare business models with contractors in ER and university ER.
- Develop better triage.
- Develop telehealth apps to reduce the ER burden.
- Develop an AI advocate for patients, e.g., that keeps track of tests already run and if new ones make sense.
- Use AI for better budgeting.
- Patient advocate chatbots, e.g., what questions to ask in the ER
- Use AI for workload and scheduling tasks