Developing innovative interdisciplinary biomedical engineering programs in Nigeria: Lessons learned

An interdisciplinary team comprising faculty from the medical school, business school and school of engineering at Northwestern University is in its third year of cultivating "locally grown" healthcare solutions in Nigeria through a grant provided by NIH's Fogarty International Center. Through a series of training sessions at multiple sites in multiple countries, faculty at the University of Lagos (UINLAG) and the University of Ibadan (UI) are gaining the expertise and developing the infrastructure necessary to identify, design, and commercialize solutions to their own healthcare issues. The specific aims of the grant are three-fold: 1) Establish new and strengthen existing training programs in biomedical engineering in sub-Saharan Africa; 2) Train biomedical engineers and medical doctors to evaluate newly developed HIV-related and other testing and therapeutic devices; 3) Train post graduates from business schools to scale-up development and launch new healthcare practices. In support of these specific aims we have created four distinct annual training sessions: 1) week-long annual planning meetings hosted by either UNILAG or UI and facilitated by the NU team; 2) ten-week long biomedical engineering training programs at the University of Cape Town (UCT) facilitated by UCT and NU faculty; 3) participation in two-week long Kellogg Field Studies in Africa; 4) four-week long mentoring visits to NU and the greater Chicago area, including participation in the annual BMES conference. An integral component of the training at NU involves Northwestern faculty members working with faculty from UI and UNILAG to develop BME degree granting programs at their respective universities. This paper describes these training programs and assesses their ability to meet the specific aims listed above. In addition, we share insights gained through direct and in-direct assessments on how well these programs are addressing the specific aims laid out in grant, identifying what requires modification going forward. We also update the progress made in developing BME degree programs at both universities.