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An Approach to Integrating Health Disparities within Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Education

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Abstract

Health disparities are preventable differences in the incidence, prevalence and burden of disease among communities targeted by gender, geographic location, ethnicity and/or socio-economic status. While biomedical research has identified partial origin(s) of divergent burden and impact of disease, the innovation needed to eradicate health disparities in the United States requires unique engagement from biomedical engineers. Increasing awareness of the prevalence and consequences of health disparities is particularly attractive to today’s undergraduates, who have undauntedly challenged paradigms believed to foster inequality. Here, the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The City College of New York (CCNY) has leveraged its historical mission of access-and-excellence to integrate the study of health disparities into undergraduate BME curricula. This article describes our novel approach in a multiyear study that: (i) Integrated health disparities modules at all levels of the required undergraduate BME curriculum; (ii) Developed opportunities to include impacts of health disparities into undergraduate BME research projects and mentored High School summer STEM training; and (iii) Established health disparities-based challenges as BME capstone design and/or independent entrepreneurship projects. Results illustrate the rising awareness of health disparities among the youngest BMEs-to-be, as well as abundant undergraduate desire to integrate health disparities within BME education and training.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NCI U54CA132378, NEI R21EY026752), the National Science Foundation (CBET 0939511) and the Wallace Coulter Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, New York Center for Biomedical Engineering (NYCBE), The City College of New York (CCNY), 160 Convent Ave., ST-403D, New York, NY, 10031, USA

    Maribel Vazquez

  2. Department of Information Technology, Summer Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Institute, The City College of New York (CCNY), New York, USA

    Otto Marte

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, Director of Student Entrepreneurship, The City College of New York (CCNY), New York, USA

    Joseph Barba

  4. Department of Biology, Director of Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Partnership, The City College of New York (CCNY), New York, USA

    Karen Hubbard

Authors
  1. Maribel Vazquez
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  2. Otto Marte
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  4. Karen Hubbard
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Correspondence to Maribel Vazquez.

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Associate Editor Scott I. Simon oversaw the review of this article.

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Vazquez, M., Marte, O., Barba, J. et al. An Approach to Integrating Health Disparities within Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Education. Ann Biomed Eng 45, 2703–2715 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1903-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-017-1903-8

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