Promoting innovation: Enhancing transdisciplinary opportunities for medical and engineering students

<b>Purpose:</b> Addressing current healthcare challenges requires innovation and collaboration. Current literature provides limited guidance in promoting these skills in medical school. One approach involves transdisciplinary training in which students from different disciplines work together toward a shared goal. We assessed the need for such a curriculum at Dartmouth College. <b>Methods:</b> We surveyed medical and engineering students’ educational values; learning experiences; professional goals; and interest in transdisciplinary education and innovation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. <b>Results:</b> Shared values among student groups included leadership development, innovation, collaboration, and resource sharing. Medical students felt their curriculum inadequately addressed creativity and innovation relative to their engineering counterparts (<i>p</i> p <b>Conclusions:</b> Medical and engineering students share an interest in the innovation process and need a shared curriculum to facilitate collaboration. A transdisciplinary course that familiarizes students with this process has the potential to promote physicians and engineers as leaders and innovators who can effectively work across industry lines. A transdisciplinary course was piloted in Spring 2017.<b>研究目的：</b> 破解当前医疗健康领域的现存挑战，亟需创新与跨领域协作。现有文献针对医学院校学生培养此类能力的指导较为有限。其中一种可行路径是开展跨学科培训（transdisciplinary training），让不同学科的学生围绕共同目标协同学习。本研究针对达特茅斯学院（Dartmouth College）评估开设此类课程的必要性。 <b>研究方法：</b> 本研究针对医学生与工程专业学生开展问卷调查，内容涵盖其教育价值观、学习经历、职业目标，以及对跨学科教育（transdisciplinary education）与创新的兴趣。数据采用描述性统计（descriptive statistics）方法进行分析。 <b>研究结果：</b> 不同学生群体的共同价值观包括领导力培养、创新、协作与资源共享。相较于工程专业学生，医学生认为自身课程体系对创造力与创新能力的培养存在不足（<i>p</i> [原文此处统计数据未完整呈现]）。 <b>研究结论：</b> 医学生与工程专业学生均对创新流程抱有浓厚兴趣，且亟需共建共享课程以推动跨领域协作。开设面向学生的跨学科课程，使其熟悉创新流程，有望培养出能够跨越行业边界开展协作的领导者与创新者，涵盖医师与工程师。本研究于2017年春季开展了跨学科课程试点。