Supporting Medical Student Innovation

June 3, 2016

StrollSight
The StrollSight – a stroller prototype with haptic feedback for visually impaired parents.

Travelling with a child in a stroller can be a challenge for anyone. Carrying bags, navigating the sidewalk, watching for obstacles, and entertaining the young one are just a few of them. Being visually impaired adds navigating with a walking aid to the situation, taking away one hand, and forcing a juggling act that compromises either child safety or balance. Some BC medical students set out to address this problem--and several others--at the inaugural, student-led BC Hatching Health event.

With funding from Doctors of BC, BC Hatching Health aims to bridge the gap between diverse individuals to solve problems in health care by connecting learners and professionals, accelerating the realization of innovative medical solutions. The inaugural event brought together 80 participants from health care, design, and engineering backgrounds for a weekend-long incubator competition to pitch and develop a solution to a health care problem. Participants were provided access to 54 mentors and tools to develop their concepts. They eventually formed into multi-disciplinary teams where they were then given 26 hours to hatch their solution to specific problems.

StrollSight Team
StrollSight Team members are Megan Chun, Jake McIvor, Janice Savage, Kevin Kobes, Sharon Voong, Carley Schwartz, David Deng, and Sandra Manrique

The challenge faced by visually impaired parents was tackled by a group who created StrollSight, a stroller that provides haptic feedback in the form of vibrating stroller handles. The StrollSight team won the Doctors of BC Collaboration Award for their innovative solution.

Hatching Health Team
The Hatching Health Team: Cameron Stuart, Master's of Applied Science Candidate in Biomedical Engineering, Cameron Stuart. Ameen Amanian and Daniel Raff, medical students. Ashley Anderson, Bachelor of Commerce Candidate.

Doctors of BC provides an annual $10,000 grant to BC medical students through the Medical Undergraduate Society for student-led projects. In addition to BC Hatching Health, Doctors of BC funded dozens of other projects this year, including:

  • The UBC Surgical Club--Provides medical students with exposure to the surgical specialization, helping them answer the question, “what kind of doctor do I want to be?”
  • The Women’s Health Initiative--Speaker series on women’s, LGBTQ+, and postmenopausal sexuality.
  • The Anesthesia Interest Group--Provides workshops that introduce the anesthesia specialty and the anesthesia GP program.
  • The UBC Medicine Stem Cell Club--Recruits Canadians to register as potential stem-cell donors.

Doctors of BC’s commitment to supporting our members over the course of their professional journey starts with medical students, our doctors of tomorrow.