Objectives:

(1) Produce new researchers in the accessible medical instrumentation field,

(2) Increase the capacity of medical instrumentation developers, engineering and design students, and medical facility administrators to meet the needs of people with disabilities as medical patients and as healthcare service providers

Implementation Strategy:

The RERC-AMI¹s training initiatives are designed to complement its research and development activities. Training activities addressing the first aim focus on graduate and undergraduate education. Training activities addressing the second aim are at a preliminary stage, and will include special training and continuing education events, and general training through dissemination activities.

Training programs for post-secondary education to produce new researchers in the field include research assistantships at both Marquette University and Western University of Health Sciences.

Supported Students:

• Melissa Lemke (graduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, August 2003 - present)
• Xin ("Tyre") Feng (graduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, June 2003 - present)
• Sean Campbell (graduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, May 2003 - January 2005)
• Laura Johnson (graduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, June 2003 - August 2003)
• Pawan Shroff (graduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, September 2004 - present)
• Elizabeth Omiatek (graduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, January 2005 - present)
• Mathhew Wimmer (undergraduate student, biomeedical engineering, Marquette, June 2003 - May 2004)
• Jason Foil (undergraduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, June 2003 - July 2004)
• Mark Mundschau (undergraduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, June 2003 - September 2003)
• Michael Poellmann (undergraduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, June 2003 - September 2003)
• Lora Mielcarek (undergraduate in biomedical engineering, now physical therapy graduate student, June 2004 - present)
• Matthew Schaning (undergraduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, May 2004 - August 2004)
• David Brafman (undergraduate student, mechanical engineering, UC Berkeley, June 2004 - present)
• Eli Gratz (undergraduate student, industrial engineering, UWM/UW-Madison, June 2004 - August 2004)
• Michael Baran (undergraduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, September 2004 - present
• Danielle Richterkessing (undergraduate student, biomedical engineering, Marquette, September 2004 - present)

Training Through Courses and National Student Design Competition

A byproduct of D2.2 National Student Design Competition is that over 100 students so far have been exposed to the the principles of accessible design (roughly 25 during the 2003-2004 academic year, and over 80 during the 2004-2005 academic year).

Material on usability and universal and accessible design of medical instrumentation was included within the senior/graduate rehabilitation engineering course at Marquette University (BIEN 167), offered in the Fall of 2003 and 2004 (instructor: Jack Winters).

2. Training Events

Each year the RERC-AMI has a booth at the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America (RESNA) conference, and also participates in other meetings such as Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), and Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). As RERC-AMI studies mature, training events will be implemented for such meetings.

On October 20-21 2005 the RERC-AMI will host a State of the Science Workshop at the FDA's Conference Center in Rockville MD in the Washington DC area.