ACCESS-VIP

"Acute Medical Care and Systems Strengthening in Low-Resource Settings"

ACCESS-VIP is a unique program that partners undergraduate students with medical students in a team-based, multi-year, multidisciplinary format. The ACCESS program in the School of Medicine focuses on solution and services for global health delivery. BME, Mech-E, CS, ECE students can apply their engineering skills to critical thinking and creativity for developing medical/surgical devices, patient care products, and app/software systems.

ACCESS-VIP teams will be challenged to research unmet medical needs and develop innovative solutions for safe, effective, and affordable solutions for low-resource environments. There can be multiple project teams within the ACCESS-VIP initiative. We expect 3-4 engineering students will partner a medical student on their ACCESS project. The team projects offer opportunities for developing real-world transdisciplinary collaborative and leadership skills while designing innovative product solutions and methodologies to address health inequities.

VCU undergraduate students should be at least in 2nd year of academic program. Medical students enrolled in the ACCESS Program will partner with engineering students on specific projects. Students will be admitted based on 1) Motivation (reasons to be involved), 2) Collaboration (demonstrates team player skills, active contributions, and meeting goals), and 3) Commitment and Availability. All students will receive course credit in accordance with their major and academic home unit.

Team Advisors: Dr. Rebecca Heise (Engineering), Edgar Rodas, M.D. (ACCESS Director), Aamer Syed, M.D. (Pulmonary Critical Care).

Contact: Dr. Rebecca Heise (rlheise@vcu.edu)