In medicine, one size does not fit all. This is especially true for orthopedic surgery, where medical devices and surgical approaches designed specifically for a patient’s anatomy are linked to lower costs and improved quality of life.

Today, the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science launched a master’s program that combines personalized patient care and engineering. The new Master of Science in Personalized Medicine and Applied Engineering will train the next generation of engineers, computer scientists, and healthcare professionals to use new technologies in medicine and three-dimensional imaging to improve outcomes for the patients. The one-year graduate program, which is the first of its kind, will begin this summer.

“The medical profession has always relied on science, engineering, and technology as the foundation of practice,” says Vincent Wilczynski, PhD, associate dean of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science and James S. Tyler, director of the Center for Engineering Innovation. & Design. “The pace of change in engineering and medical technology now demands that engineering and technology specialists partner with medical specialists to provide technology-dependent forms of care.”

Orthopedics and engineering: closely linked

Orthopedic surgery requires a close partnership between surgeons and engineers. While surgeons have the expertise to perform operations, engineers have important technological skills in 3D planning. The idea for the new program came about when Lisa Lattanza, MD, president and professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation, who has been involved in more than 250 cases involving 3D technology, realized with a fellow engineer that there was a lack specialized training available for engineers and doctors.

“What has become clear is that there is a very wide variation in the skills of engineers and surgeons/doctors,” she says. “That’s how it all happened – we started to find out if a program like this existed and it didn’t. So we started designing something that doesn’t exist anywhere else to facilitate the use of advanced 3D technology for patient/surgical care.

What Masters Students Will Learn

Lattanza partnered with Daniel Wiznia, MD, assistant professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation and assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science; and Steven Tommasini, PhD, orthopedic researcher; as well as Wilczynski. Together they designed the new master’s program.

“It’s amazing,” says Wiznia. “There is no other integrated training program that teaches engineers and medical students how to use imaging and create personalized treatments, whether with robotics, XR or 3D printing of a point of view. medical view.”

The program will begin with an eight-week clinical immersion program, where students will shadow clinical mentors from various departments and be trained to identify needs for new devices or enhancements to existing resources. This will be followed by two course semesters, where students will take courses in topics such as 3D modeling and printing, personalized medicine software, and medical device design. They will also undertake a research thesis, in which they can either stay with their summer mentors or choose a new mentor. And the program will continue to grow, Tommasini says, along with emerging technology.

“As technology advances, we’ll be able to adapt and incorporate new things into the program,” he says. “As the VR and AR worlds become more sophisticated, so will the curriculum.”

Improve patient care and career opportunities

The goal of the program is to open doors for graduates to be hired directly by hospitals, health systems and medical device companies for positions in medicine and 3D imaging, as well as train the next generation of physicians to use and develop these technologies. With the skills acquired through their courses and hands-on experience, they will have the tools they need to launch into their careers.

“The wave of the future in medicine is to personalize patient care as much as possible,” says Lattanza. “Now is the time for us to really latch onto the technology that’s out there and take it to the next dimension.”